The Improvement Era

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Latter-dav Saints Garments

APPROVED CORRECT PATTERN
Prepaid Parcel Post to any part of the United States if paid In ad-
vance, 20c. extra on each garment to Canada or Mexico.

These approved Temple Garments are knitted and made right here 1m
our own Utah factory, to your special order and measurements. Lowest
prices on market. Mall your order to us now and say you Haw It in the
"Improvement Era." If order is C. O D. you pay the postage.

LOOK FOR THE APPROVED LABEL IN EVERY GARMENT
No. Price

4 Light Summer Weight bleached S1.40

11 Light weight cotton 1.60

20 Light weight cotton bleached 1.76

60 Medium weight cotton 1.76

22 Medium weight cotton bleached 2.00

90 Heavy weight cotton unbleached 2.25

24 Heavy weight cotton bleached 2.60

60 Extra white double bleached, mercerised S.OO

10 Medium weight wool mixture S.OO

16 Heavy weight wool mixture 4.00

70 S now white sUkileen 3.40

18 All Marino wool 6.60

Sizes from 22 to 44 bust, 62 to 64 lengths, as desired. Longer than 64
Inches or over 44 in. bust, each size 20c. extra. Garments with double
backs 25c. extra per suit. We will make any size desired.

Measure bust around body under arms; length from center on top of
shoulder down to Inside of ankle. Orders for less than two garments net
accepted.

If "Modified Style," short sleeves, low neck, buttons ete. is wanted, bo state
and add 25c per suit to above prices, or regular Garment will be sent to you.

MODEL KNITTING WORKS

FRANKLIN CHRISTIANSON, Manager
•67 Iversen St., Salt Lake City, Utah. Phone Hy. 616

WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS, PLEASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA

TRANSFORMATION

I was a Bethlemite; had lived and loved as mortals do,

And I had tasted, oft, wormwood and gall, of cankering

hate;
Had fumed and spat when enemies were passing by my
gate.
But lo, the Star! And wise men from the gates of morning
dew!
And then I gazed into the liquid eyes of Mary's Child.
The Cherub of the Haloed Head looked in my face and
smiled,
And all my bitter hate was changed to loving sympathy,

My enemies became my friends. Oh, I could not condemn!
For, having caught the love divine, I loved the souls of
men.

I was a bigot, great and high, garbed in a robe of pride,
I boasted of my power; that I could fight and conquer

fear.
With self-sufficiency, I bragged of having not a peer.
H But, lo! I followed where He led, up Olive's Mountain
wide,
I listened to a pleading voice in lone Gethsemane,
"My Father, if it be Thy will, remove this cup from me!"
H And then my cloak of pride slipped off and fell upon the
ground,
And I was humble; just a child; with tender sympathy,
And all who faltered by the way, henceforth were kin to
me.

I was a hard avenger of the souls who served me ill,
I was a critic, and I sat oft in the scorner's seat,
I gave for blow, a ringing blow, revenge to me was sweet,
And, lo! beside a wayside cross, on far off Calv'ry's hill,
I listened to the words of Him who died for me and you:
"Forgive them, Father," in this hour. "They know not
what they do,"
Thenceforth, I studied, not the deed, but motive of the heart;
And those I'd deemed of mean intent, seemed kind and

true and good,
Revenge had flown, and left me Peace; for now I under-
stood.
Tridell, Utah Alice Morrill

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H

THE MOUNTAINS

Drawing by E. H. Eastmond

Improvement Era

Vol; XXVII DECEMBER, 1923 No. 2

HISTORY, PROGRESS AND COUNSEL*

By President Heber J. Grant

It is certainly an inspiring sight to see this building so well
filled at the first session of our semi-annual conference. I feel truly
grateful to the Lord for his blessings to us as a people during the
past year. Our harvests have been very abundant. There is a feeling
of contentment today throughout this intermountain country, where
the Latter-day Saints are located, that is very different, financially
speaking, from what it was two years ago today.

We are grateful indeed for the blessings that have come to the
people during the past two years, and we humbly pray that they may
be continued upon the Saints, that the land may yield abundantly, and
that peace and prosperity may continue with all of the people of
the Lord. Above all it is the desire of the Presidency of the Church
and the General Authorities that the Latter-day Saints may grow in the
light, the knowledge, and the testimony of the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, which has been restored to the earth again, through the
instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith. While we rejoice in
the material prosperity of the people, we rejoice more in the growth
of faith and knowledge and the love of God and a desire to serve him
on their part.

President's Visit

During the past six months we have had the privilege of receiv-
ing a visit from the President of the United States, who spoke from
this stand, and who later visited the southern part of our state. We
all know that he has since been called from this life. As I stated
here upon one occasion, I am very grateful that President Harding
had the opportunity of meeting and mingling with the people of
our state and of the adjoining states, where so many of the Latter-
day Saints are located. I rejoiced when he said to me, as I was dining

♦Address delivered at the opening session of semi-annual general con-
ference, Salt Lake Tabernacle, Friday, October 5, 1923. Reported by Joseph
Anderson.

Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second class matter. Ac-
ceptance foe mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of
October 3, 1917, authorized on July 2, 1918, $2 per annum.

Address Room 40 6 Church Office Building, Salt Lake City, Utah.

96 IMPROVEMENT ERA

with him in the Yellowstone Park, that his good opinion of our
people has been enhanced by his visit among them. I am grateful that
the high office he held until his death is now occupied by a man
who I believe with all my heart is worthy of that exalted position. I
desire, and I am sure that all Latter-day Saints desire, that the inspira-
tion that comes from God may be given to President Coolidge in the
great office which he holds, and that wisdom may come to him and
his cabinet in directing the affairs of our beloved country.

We as Latter-day Saints have much to be thankful for. We are
just completing in Idaho Falls a magnificent hospital, which when
completed and furnished, will cost about four hundred thousand dol-
lars, and will be a lasting monument to the integrity of our people,
and their devotion to God. Otherwise we would not have had the
means to have created such a magnificent structure in our adjoining
state.

Alberta Temple Dedicated

There has been dedicated a temple to the Most High God in
a foreign land, the first that has been erected outside the confines
or dependencies of the United States. The cost of the Alberta Tem-
ple, including furniture, equipment, lawns, grounds, and in fact
the building complete, is seven hundred and eighty-one thousand
four hundred and seventy-nine dollars and ninety cents — over three
quarters of a million dollars expended there in completing a house of
God, dedicated for sacred purposes. Many of us had the opportunity
of attending the sessions, eleven in all, at each of which the dedicatory
prayer was read, and remarks were made upon more than one occasion
by all of the General Authorities who were in attendance, by many of
the officers of the Church, and by many of the people who were
there as visitors.

I rejoice in being able to say that the same sweet, peaceful,
Godlike and inspiring spirit that I have had the opportunity of en-
joying at the dedication of the Logan Temple, of the Manti Temple,
of the Salt Lake Temple, and the one in the Hawaiian Islands, was
present with us upon all of the occasions when we met in the Alberta
Temple. I rejoice that there was a rich outpouring of the spirit
of the Lord during all of the eleven sessions that were held in that
Temple, and that those who were present partook of that spirit, and
that the visitors and the local people were satisfied in their hearts
and able to bear witness that the Lord, by the rich outpourings of
his Spirit, was with us throughout the sacred services.

There stands out in my mind in the various dedications of tem-
ples that I have had the privilege of attending, a feeling of gratitude
and thanksgiving to God that I was permitted to be present at these
dedications, and to partake of the spirit that was always present. It
is the spirit that giveth life, while the letter killeth; and I can testify
that the spirit of the living God has been present at the time of the

HISTORY, PROGRESS AND COUNSEL 97

dedication of each and all of the temples that I have had the great
privilege and honor of attending.

Spirits Attuned

If we as Latter-day Saints live the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our spirits are perfectly attuned, so that we really partake of the in-
spiration of the living God that is present in the conference gatherings
of the Latter-day Saints, and I know that no faithful Latter-day
Saint could have been present at Logan, at Manti, at Salt Lake City, in
the Hawaiian Islands or in Cardston at the dedication of the several
temples but what he or she was thrilled by the spirit of those occa-
sions. No Latter-day Saints has attended any of those sessions who
has not gone away with an increased love of God, with an increased
desire to serve God, with a renewed determination to more faithfully
live the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have espoused.

I call to mind two occasions while in the missionary field that
were remarkable to me, for they compared in my affections and in
my feelings with the blessed experiences incident to the dedication
of these temples. One of them was when we had all of the elders of
the British Mission and representatives from some of the other mis-
sions of Europe present at Bradford — several hundred missionaries,
and we had a spiritual feast. We had what would be called "a red
letter day," spiritually. The Lord God Almighty blessed us abundant-
ly upon that occasion. I call to mind another instance in Rotterdam
where many of the missionaries of the Netherlands mission, includ-
ing Belgium and Holland, and many from the Swiss and German
mission were present. Our meeting lasted until midnight, and I am
sure that no one of the many elders who were assembled there was
the least bit weary because of the length of the meeting. There were
tears of gratitude and thanksgiving to the living God for an abiding
knowledge and testimony of the divinity of the work in which we
are engaged, shed in great profusion upon that occasion. The fear
of God was with us, and we rejoiced exceedingly.

Cumorah Conference

On the 22nd day of last month we had the privilege — four of
the general authorities from this city and one who was located at
Brooklyn as the 'president of the Eastern States Mission, Brother
Brigham H. Roberts — of being present at the wonderful conference
held at the Joseph Smith farm, in the Sacred Grove, and at the Hill
Cumorah, celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of Joseph Smith's
first view of the plates from which the Book of Mormon was later
translated. A very remarkable conference for three days was held
there. A rich outpouring of the spirit of the living God was ex-
perienced. I am grateful indeed, to President Brigham H. Roberts
for arranging that conference, for I am free to confess, that in the mul-
titude of duties and responsibilities resting upon me, I might have

98 IMPROVEMENT ERA

neglected that one-hundredth anniversary. I feel grateful to Brother
Roberts that he did not allow it to pass without a very splendid con-
ference. It was one that each and every person who attended will
look back to with that same pleasure and joy and satisfaction with
which we look back upon the dedication of our temples, and the
passing of other mile-stones, so to speak, in the history of this Church.

In the Sacred Grove

I remarked in the first meeting that we were sorry beyond ex-
pression that President Roberts' health was such that he could not
be present, that it seemed to me very much like the great play of
Hamlet with Hamlet left out. Brother Roberts had prepared a very
remarkable program, covering many episodes and historical matters in
connection with the rise of the Church through the one hundred
years, nearly, of its history, and there were no words with which
we could convey adequately our regret that the man to whom we were
indebted for all of these labors could not take a more active part
than he did because of his poor health upon that occasion; and yet
we rejoiced that he was able to lift up his voice on several occasions
during that conference, and also to be present during some of the
meetings, although his health was such that he had to withdraw from
a few of them before their close. I have expressed, and heard others
who were present express sincere and heartfelt regret that the prayer
delivered by Brother Roberts in the Sacred Grove on Sunday morning,
Sept. 23, was not taken down in writing. I cannot remember when
my heart has been more stirred, and when I have had my affection
called out to the Lord more perfectly than upon the occasion when
Brother Roberts uttered that prayer in the Sacred Grove, where the
Lord God Almighty, and where Jesus Christ our Redeemer, had
appeared and conversed with the Prophet, or more properly speaking,
with the boy Joseph Smith, afterward the Prophet of the Living God.

Faith Increased

We know, of course, that the world doubts that God and Jesus
Christ spoke in that grove to Joseph Smith; but there is no Latter-day
Saint living who has kept the commandments of God, and has re-
ceived the witness of the Holy Spirit, that we are engaged in his work,
who has any doubt in his or her mind that the Lord God Almighty,
that Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, the Savior of mankind,
did talk to that boy. And those of us who had the privilege of as-
sembling in that grove Sunday morning, Sept. 23, and partaking of
the sacrament of the Lord's supper, in witness to God of our remem-
brance of the death and suffering, and of the atoning blood of our
Redeemer, and who listened to the inspiring words in the prayer of
supplication by Brother Roberts, had our faith increased and strength-
ened, and had our hearts mellowed in gratitude to the living God for
the rich outpourings of his spirit at that sacred spot. I believe

HISTORY, PROGRESS AND COUNSEL 99

that if I had more thoroughly partaken of the spirit of that conference
prior to going there, that arrangements would have been made to have
had hundreds of the Latter-day Saints present. It was only a very
short time prior to this one hundredth anniversary that I felt im-
pressed that I ought to go there. Last May I thought perhaps I would
gc. but scarcely felt the full inspiration of it. However, just before
the conference was to be held, the impression came to me that it would
be a very serious mistake if the man whom the Lord had seen fit
to honor in placing him to preside over the Church of Christ, es-
tablished through the instrumentality of that boy who, one hundred
and three years ago, conversed with God the Father and the Savior,
and one hundred years ago, saw for the first time the plates from
which the Book of Mormon was translated, did not attend that cele-
bration. I was very grateful that two of the CouncT of the Twelve
happened to be in the east at the time, so that they could also be there;
and in thinking the matter over I felt that it would be v.;ry fitting
indeed for one of the blood relatives of the Prophet Joseph Smith to
be there at that remarkable celebration of the one hundredth anniversary
of the first view of the plates from which the Book of Mormon was
transcribed.

New Inspiration

I have read within the past few weeks what a lot of rot the Book
of Mormon is, what an absurd, ridiculous book it is. I want to say
that it was my pleasure to be very intimately acquainted with the late
William W. Riter, than whom there were few men in all the Church
who were greater readers and greater students, and who had more
analytical and thoughtful minds. The last time that I heard Brother
Riter speak was in a meeting in the ward where I reside. He was a.
man who read and studied a great deal. Among other things he
made the statement, which was greatly to my surprise, that for many
years he had read the Book of Mormon through regularly every year.
1 never dreamed that he would take the time to do so. And he said
that he found new inspiration, new uplifting thoughts, that he
enjoyed the book, he believed, more each time that he read it than
he had previously done. He said that nobody could find anything
in that book that was not calculated to uplift mankind, and to im-
prove them; that there was no book that more perfectly inspired a
love of the Lord Jesus Christ the Redeemer of the world, by its con-
tents, than did the Book of Mormon; that there was not one single
incident, not one paragraph in that whole book, that could offend
the most sensitive soul. I have regretted beyond expression that the
very remarkable and splendid sermon that he gave that night was
not taken down in shorthand.

The Arizona Temple
I am pleased to be able to inform the people that the work on

100 IMPROVEMENT ERA

the Arizona temple is progressing satisfactorily, that next month
we hope to lay the corner stone and deposit some records in that
stone, and that we hope in the near future to have that building com-
pleted for sacred ordinance work.

We are making very extensive improvements, almost completed
now, giving greater facilities for taking care of larger numbers
of people in the Salt Lake temple. Many of those improvements,
however, have had to be made underground because of the conditions
that face us. We have made some improvements, also, in the Logan
Temple for increased capacity in doing temple work there.

There have been changes in the following missions:

Hugo D. E. Peterson has been made the president of the Swedish
Mission, succeeding Gideon E. Hulterstrom.

John S. Hansen has been made president of the Danish Mission
succeeding Carl E. Peterson.

Angus T. Wright has been made president of the New Zealand
Mission, succeeding George F. Taylor.

Ernest LeRoy Butler has been made president of the Samoa Mis-
sion succeeding John Quincy Adams.

Missionaries Safe

Martin A. Robertson has been appointed to succeed Lloyd Ivie
as president of the Japan Mission. Brother Ivie has not yet re-
turned. We received a cablegram, however, from him stating that
our missionaries in Japan were safe. We have not yet had a letter
from him since the terrible catastrophe of earthquake and fire in that
land, but we are grateful indeed to the Lord that all of our mis-
sionaries in Japan were preserved during the awful calamity that
came to that country.

Albert R. Peterson has been made president of the Norwegian
Mission, succeeding August S. Schow.

Fred J. Tadje has been made president of the Swiss and German
Mission, succeeding Serge F. Ballif.

Charles S. Hyde has been made president of the Netherlands Mis-
sion, succeeding John T. Lillywhite.

The work in all of our missions is progressing very favorably
indeed. We are thankful for the splendid labors being performed in all
of the missions throughout the world. The one cry that comes
to us from every mission is: Send us more elders. The people are
becoming interested in the work of the Lord. "We could use twice
a? many elders" is the word that comes from many of the missions.

Impressive Slogan

The Mutual Improvement associations of the Church have an
impressive slogan this year. They stand for spiritual growth among
the L2tter-day Saints through family and secret prayers. I wish to
commend the young people for adopting this slogan. I am con

HISTORY, PROGRESS AND COUNSEL 101

vinced that one of the greatest and one of the best things in all the
world to keep a man true and faithful in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, is to secretly supplicate God in the name of Jesus Christ, for
the guidance of his Holy Spirit. I am convinced that one of the
greatest things that can come into any home to cause the boys and girls
in that home to grow up in a love of God, and in a love for the Gos-
pel of Jesus Christ, is to have family prayer, not for the father of the
family alone to pray, but for the mother and for the children to do
so also, that they may partake of the spirit of prayer and be in har-
mony, be in tune, to have the radio, so to speak, in communication
with the Spirit of the Lord. I believe that there are very few that go
astray, that very few lose their faith, who have once had a knowledge
of the gospel, and who never neglect their prayers in their families,
and their secret supplications to God. I am grateful for this slogan.
I am also grateful that in addition to this slogan the fifty thousand or
more of our young ladies are being requested that they shall, during
the next six months, observe rigidly and strictly the Word of Wisdom.
If you or I possessed a letter from the late President Warren G.
Harding, I am sure that we would prize it, that we would hold it as
a keepsake all the days of our lives, and that we would leave it as a
legacy for our posterity — a communication from a man that had been
honored by being the president of our great country. Do we ever
stop to think that the Creator of heaven and earth, the Maker of all
that we see in this great universe, the Father of our spirits, the Father
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the spirit and in the flesh, has communi-
cated with us, that he has given us counsel and advice such as will
lead us back into his presence, that will give to us vigor of body and
of mind?

A Matter of Regret

And yet there are hundreds, there are thousands among the
Latter-day Saints to whom the Lord God Almighty has given a
testimony and a knowledge that he lives, a knowledge that Jesus is
the Christ, a knowledge that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the true
and the living God, and who are able to bear that witness and to
testify of it at home and abroad who when the Lord God Almighty,
the creator of heaven and earth, tells them what is good for them,
physically and spiritually, and writes them a letter, neglect to pay any
attention to it. I am sorry that today there are many of the sons and
daughters of the Latter-day Saints — some of the sons and daughters
of leading men and women in this Church, who are having social
gatherings and who think that it is smart, that it shows a spirit of
liberality and of broadness to drink wine and to have their tea and
their coffee and to play their cards, and to do those things that we
have been taught are not good for us. I am going to read to you a
letter from the Lord to the Latter-day Saints:

"Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Kirtland,

102 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Ohio, February 27, 1833." [Ninety long years ago since the Lord wrote
this letter to you and to me, and to every man and woman and child in
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Word of Wis-
dom. What is there in all the world so valuable as Wisdom? Nothing.
The one thing of all others that King Solomon sought after was wisdom]
"Abstinence from wine, strong drink, tobacco and hot drinks enjoined —
moderation in the eating of meat — wholesome foods — promises to those
who live according to these precepts.

"A Word of Wisdom, for the benefit of the council of high priests,
assembled in Kirtland, and the church, and also the Saints in Zion.

Given With Promise

"To be sent greeting; not by commandment or constraint, but by rev-
elation and the words of wisdom, showing forth the order and will of God,"
[in a letter telling you, telling me the will of God,] "in the temporal salva-
tion of all Saints in the last days —

"Given for a principle with promise," [don't forget that promise,]
"adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all Saints, who
are or can be called Saints.

"Behold, verily thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils
and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the
last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this
word of wisdom by revelation —

"That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you,
behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in
assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him.

"And behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the
vine, of your own make. ,

"And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing
of your bodies."

I remember hearing the most eloquent address that I heard dur-
ing the campaign for prohibition of liquor delivered by Dr. Geisel,
a lady who was connected with the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michi-
gan, and she stated that there were scores and hundreds of doctors
that had become absolutely convinced from their scientific investigation,
from their personal experience, that alcohol or strong liquors were ab-
solutely worthless as medicine when taken internally, but that they
were good for the washing of the body, that there was a stimulating
and invigorating effect that those who were sick enjoyed by washing
their bodies with alcohol.

Favorably Impressed

I remember after hearing her remarks in the Twenty-first ward
Sunday school that morning, that I asked permission to ride to the
depot with her in the automobile. She had a watch lying in front
of her and agreed to talk within ten minutes of train time. In going
to the train I said: "Dr. Geisel, I am delighted to hear that your
investigations in America, France and Russia regarding alcohol confirm
what we knew seventy-five years ago through a revelation from the
Lord to Joseph Smith the Prophet." And I told her of the Word
of Wisdom, and she said she was coming back here some time to spend

HISTORY, PROGRESS AND COUNSEL 103

an entire summer vacation, that she had found so many remarkable
things in our faith and our doctrines, that she wanted to investigate
them.

"And, again, tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly, and is
not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used
with judgment and skill.

"And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly.

"And, again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath or-
dained for the constitution, nature, and use of man —

"Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season
thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.

"Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord,
have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are
to be used sparingly.

"And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in
times of winter, or of cold, or famine."

Teachings Confirmed

I remember recently reading that many of the doctors had come
to the conclusion that excessive use of meat was one of the great
causes of cancer, and of many other of the diseases that are destroying
the human race. Year by year the inspiration comes to men through
study and research to confirm, one by one, the teachings that came
by the inspiration of the living God to Joseph Smith the Prophet of
this last dispensation.

"All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the
staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls
of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth.

"And these hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine
and excess of hunger.

"All grain is good for the food of man; as also the fruit of the
vine ; that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground —

"Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the
horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field,
and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain."

Now, oh, ye Saints, listen to the promise of the Lord God Al-
mighty in this letter written to you as to what shall be your heritage
if you obey these simple words of wisdom:

"And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in
obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and mar-
row to their bones;

"And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hid-
den treasures;

"And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.

"And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel
shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen."

Let me read the last verse once more:

"And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel
shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them."

Benefit of Obedience

In this same book you will find it recorded that there is a law

104 IMPROVEMENT ERA

irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of the world,
upon which every blessing is predicated, and when we receive a
blessing we receive it because we fulfil the law upon which the bless-
ing is predicated. I wish to bear my witness here that I believe with
all my heart and soul that if I had not obeyed the Word of Wisdom,
if I had not kept these commandments, that I would not be standing
before you this day as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. I believe that I would not be alive but for having
obeyed this commandment, but for having fulfilled the law which
was irrevocably decreed before the foundation of the world, whereby I
was entitled to live.

We have the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the plan
of life and salvation revealed to us — temporal salvation, spiritual sal-
vation. We have the gospel that will bring to us life eternal in the
presence of God our Father, Jesus Christ our Redeemer, and of our
loved ones who have gone before, who have been faithful.

Rejoice in Testimonies

I thank the Lord God Almighty for the faith, for the integrity,
for the devotion to him and the gospel of his Son Jesus Christ in the
lives of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. I thank the Lord that they were
true, even to the day of their martyrdom. I rejoice in the testimonies
at the Hill Cumorah, at the Joseph Smith Farm, and in the Sacred
Grove, regarding these men. I rejoice in the marvelous integrity
and devotion to God of Brigham Young in the days of apostasy, in
the days when murder was in the hearts of many who had once
been Latter-day Saints. I rejoice that when men said that Joseph
Smith was a fallen prophet, Brigham Young was as true as steel, and
would have given his life at any time for the Prophet Joseph Smith
I rejoice in the wonderful accomplishments of Brigham Young.

I rejoice in the integrity and devotion to God of John Taylor,
■of Wilford Woodruff, of Lorenzo Snow, and of Joseph F. Smith with
v/hom I was intimately associated for forty-one years this identical
month. I know the hearts of these men. I know the inmost de-
sires of their lives, that which they desired to accomplish,
and I know that every one of these men loved God with
all his heart, and with all his being, that they all loved the people
of God, and that the one and only thing in their heart's desire above
everything else in the world, was the advancement of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, the spread of it, that men who knew not the truth might
learn and accept the plan of life and salvation.

Loyal to Country

I know that their thoughts, their prayers, their ambitions, were
all for the good of this people and their advancement, spiritually and
morally, intellectually and patriotically. I know as I know that I live
that no men ever graced the footstool of God who were more loyal

HISTORY, PROGRESS AND COUNSEL 105

to their country, who believed more firmly that the Lord God Al-
mighty inspired the men who brought freedom to this country under
George Washington and inspired the men who wrote the Constitution
of our beloved country. I thank God for these men, and with all
the power of my being I pray God that I, having been honored in my
weakness and my lack of strength in comparison to them, may lead
this people as they did, in that straight and narrow path that leads
to life eternal. I desire to read just two paragraphs from the prayer
given at the dedication of the Alberta temple:

"We thank thee, O Father for the knowledge which we possess, that
thou dost live, and that thy Son Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, and our
Savior, and that thy servant, Joseph Smith, Jr., was and is a prophet of the
true and living God. And, O Father, may we ever be true and faithful to
the gospel of thy Son Jesus Christ, revealed through thy servant Joseph.

"We especially pray thee, O Father in heaven, to bless the youth of
thy people in Zion and in all the world. Shield them from the adversary
and from wicked and designing men. Keep the youth of thy people, C*
Father, in the straight and narrow path that leads to thee, preserve them
from the pitfalls and snares that are laid for their feet. O Father, may our
children grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Give unto them a testimony of the divinity of this work as thou hast
given it unto us, and preserve them in purity, and in the truth."

And I say unto you, O fathers in Israel; if you will set an
example by being honest before God in the payment of your tithes, if
you will observe the Word of Wisdom, if you will observe your
family and your secret prayers, God will give you the strength to pre-
serve the youth of Zion as mentioned in this supplication.

May the Lord bless us and pour out upon us richly his Holy
Spirit during this conference, is my prayer, and I ask it in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

You'll Find What You Look For

Never let a person's failings

Make you to his virtues blind;

Good you'll find in all about you
If you're trying good to find.

Ere you judge another's actions,

Or against him you decide,
Place yourself in his position,

This will be your surest guide.

You can never hate a person,

Unless you have wronged him, too;

Then be careful in your judgment,
For the fault may be in you.

Life is but a truthful mirror

Which reflects the inner you.
If you'd find it full of pleasure
You must to yourself be true.
Mesa, Arizona Ethel R. Lillywhitt.

SOME WORKINGS OF LAW

By William M. Daines

"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in the heavens, upon which every
blessing is predicated." — Doctrine & Covenants.

Alfred Haywood was puzzled. Yes, and distressed extremely. He
had just received a call from the sheriff, who had served a summons attached
to a "Complaint in foreclosure" from the Real Estate Mortgage and Loan
Corporation, which meant that his fifty acre tract would be taken from
him. He had placed a mortgage of $1000 upon the tract three years ago,
in order to buy the ten acres adjoining his forty acres, and which was con-
servatively valued at $7,500 at the time of the mortgage, but because of
shrinkage in values since, owing to changed conditions in the country, could
not be sold now, if at all, for more than $5,000. True he would be given
a year in which to redeem it, but what with the low comparative selling
prices of his grain and hay, and the cost of high living that his family had
become used to, (and thought they could not do without) including the
expenses of the beautiful and luxurious automobile; the $500 still due on
the auto; the absolute necessity of an addition to the barn to say nothing
of the installing of the water system in the home they had so counted on ;
of what value or advantage would the year be as far as the prospect of
redemption was concerned?

Besides, the costs of the suit, including unpaid interest and taxes and
the large attorney's fees now allowed by the courts, would bring up the
amount to not less than $1,400. When he had signed the note and mort-
gage that bound him to pay "reasonable attorney's fees in case of fore-
closure," the fees allowed were not more than 50% of those allowed now.

And besides, did he not dismiss the thought of ever having to pay
these expenses when reading them over before signing, because of the easy
money he saw in prospect, not only from the potatoes he was going to
raise on the ten acres, but from the grain that was to bring him $2.50 to
$3 per bushel that would be raised on the forty acres? And if he could
not raise the semi-annual interest of $45 and pay the taxes as they came
due, because of the cost of high living and operation, how could he expect
to raise the $1,400 and accrued interest within the year?

And it was the failure the past year to pay the taxes and interest that
had brought on the foreclosure suit; for although the mortgage itself was
not due for another seven years, there was a clause in the mortgage, as in all
real estate mortgages, that failure to pay interest or taxes when due, would
give the right to the mortgagee, "upon his option, to declare the full amount
of the mortgage due and payable and to proceed to collect the same by fore-
closure and sale, according to the law in such cases made and provided," etc.

True, he might have foregone that trip last season by auto through
the Yellowstone National Park, and paid off these bills, but he had the
auto, and the family certainly deserved this outing; for Mrs. Ballett and
Mrs. Piedmout and others were going, and his family needed the trip as
well as they, and had worked as hard. And, the mortgage company need
not have been in such a hurry any way, for did it not have ample security?
And what was it to anybody else, but himself if he did let his taxes go
delinquent,' for the extra penalty and interest Would ultimately be paid by
him and nobody else? And why need the lawyers get in their "whack"
on hirn? . . .;.. -_l ....

SOME WORKINGS OF LAW 107

With these resentful thoughts adding materially to his discomfort, Mr.
Haywood walked into the house only to find "added fuel to the flame."
For there stood his eldest daughter, Mabel, dressed in her latest silk party
gown ready to go out to the dance to be held that evening in the "Select
Dance Hall," (that welcomed anybody who could pay the $1 per couple
for admission) and tearfully complaining "that she had worn that old dress
three times now, and it was high time that she should have another so
that Banker Jones' daughter who was not half as good looking as she
could not put it over her, as she had been trying to do."

And as Mabel finished her complaint and demand, in came a telephone
from Paul, that he had just had an accident with the auto on the state
road, and "couldn't Daddy just phone to Peebles' garage and ask them to
tow him in, for they refused to do so unless Daddy requested it and would
be responsible for the $5 charges?" "Yes, it had damaged the car con-
siderably, for that idiot, Pete Canning, was drunk I guess and wouldn't give
his share of the road. Yes, he says I was to blame, but I'll show him when
it comes into court, for I have plenty of witnesses that I am right. What
did you say? Didn't I know that court actions are expensive? Well, I
guess they are, but old Pete can't put it over on me if it does cost some-
thing!"

After making the necessary request of the garage people, Mr. Haywood
refrained from any comment, feeling much too troubled and concerned to
give way to words before his family, for he had profound respect as well
as love for his wife; and although he always confided in her and sought
her counsel in material matters, and usually went ahead only after they had
mutually agreed as to the wisdom of the undertaking, it now came vividly ro
his remembrance that they had disagreed for some time about buying the
ten acres and giving the mortgage; and that her consent to the transaction
was only half-hearted and clearly in defference to his persistence and anxiety.
So that now he very much dreaded to speak of the foreclosure suit to her,
especially at this time when the unwise actions of their older children were
so much in evidence.

Besides, Mrs. Haywood was busy trying to pacify Mabel, and prepar-
ing the evening meal, and left her husband to his thoughts, and did not
notice his worried attitude, so that without particularly noticing him, except
that he was not getting ready for Priesthood meeting, she awakened him
from his reverie by asking rather sharply, "if he did not know it was
nearly meeting time, and he did not think he ought to eat before going?"
for when he left it till after meeting to have supper, he not only missed
having the meal with the family, (which she considered very undesirable")
but also compelled her to work far into the night with the necessary after-
supper work.

"What did you say, Mary? Am I not going to Priesthood meeting
tonight? Well I guess I ought to go, but with so many troubles coming
all at once, I haven't looked at the lesson. I think I'll leave it up to Brother
Smith to take the class and give the lesson, and I'll go see what the damage
is to the auto."

Mr. Haywood then informed her of the pending suit, and repeated
that he would not go to meeting, "for it seems that my troubles are becom-
ing about all I can stand, and I don't believe I could enjoy meeting toniqht
with all these matters on my mind, and I ought to go and look after that
fool auto matter anyway."

"Don't you think, Alfred," said his wife, "that Paul and the Peebles
can look after the car, and if you went to meeting and Brother Smith gave
the lesson, you might get some inspiration from it to help you stand these

108 IMPROVEMENT ERA

trials, if not some means of avoiding the calamities that seem to be coming
on to us faster and faster?"

"Oh, drat it, Mary, you are fast becoming a regular scold."

"No, I'm not, John. If I'm to be a true wife to you, I think it is
one of my duties to stir you up in remembrance of your obligations to your-
self, in the Church. Paul will not be able to go with you to the meeting
as he should, and I think it would be a shame for you to begin seeking
excuses to stay away. Your example should be everything to your boy,
and I notice lately he has excused himself from Sunday meetings entirely,
because you neglect to go so much of the time. The Bishop asked us
yesterday to be sure and remind our husbands and sons of the meeting to-
night, and I think you ought to go."

"Well, Mary, to please you, I'll go to meeting tonight and call at
the garage on the way home, and look at the auto, but I don't expect to
get all out of it that you think I should, for we study religion in meetings,
not business."

With that, and after having eaten a hasty supper, Alfred made his
way to meeting, not with thoughts, however, of the good that he might
obtain from the lesson, but with anxiety for bills to be met and with fears
of a financial crisis, if not absolute failure, and the loss of most if not
all of his hard-earned accumulations.

Quite different were the thoughts of his wife as she cleared away the
supper dishes, and prepared the smaller children for bed, which included
the never-failing prayer at her knee before retiring. She thought of the
present home life compared with the years immediately following Alfred's
return from his mission to the Hawaiian Islands, when Paul and Mabel
were little tots and had been content to be tucked away. She was no*
tucking away her two youngest, leaving the older girl to wash and put away
the dishes, but Mabel at the dance and Paul with the damaged auto! (This
about Paul's and Mabel's present whereabouts with a shudder) . She thought
how proud she was of Alfred's ability and willingness to teach the gospel,
then; of how he sustained the ward and stake authorities, and was honored
by them : of how hard he had worked to get the comfortable home and
splendid surroundings, and his apparent success. But with this success, how
he began neglecting his meetings, pleading need for rest of urgent work as
excuses; how he had lately as tonight neglected to call the family to eve-
ning prayer while they were all there at supper time; and, through this
change, had often neglected it altogether; how the Church authorities h.id
been obliged to release him, first from one calling, then another, because of
his plea "that his work would not permit him spending the necessary time
to perform the labor in a suitable manner and others with less to attend to
were willing to do the work;" until now, all that was asked of him was to
lead the class of Seventies in the regular Monday evening Priesthood meet-
ing in the study of the lesson, and he was now caring so little for that, that
Brother Smith had been asked to assist and was having to do the most of it
lately.

Oh, would he throw himself out of all Church service, and would he
gradually go from one condition to another, till he would be found finding
fault with the Lord's constituted authorities, and destroy the family's cherished
hopes of an exaltation. For did not the Prophet say that the first step to
apostasy is the neglect of a known duty, and was not fault-finding a sure
sign of its progression.

With these serious and disquieting thoughts, came a yearning that
something might be done to stem the current of events, that seemed to be
carrying them to this dreaded and dreadful condition.

But what could be done? She had first counseled against the stand

SOME WORKINGS OF LAW 109

Alfred had taken against continued service, although his plea that his "three
years in the Islands should be sufficient service to the Church for a while,
at least," had been hard for her to answer.

Then when these conditions increased, she had pleaded with him not to
throw away all the progress he had made, but he had been cross and resent-
ful with her, and for some time she had not said much along these lines,
in order to avoid contention in the home.

But tonight these other alarming and dreadful financial difficulties had
compelled her attention, and she had spoken again, first to be resented by
Alfred, and then to be partially acquiesced in by him, and he had done as
she wished and gone to meeting, if not to take his place as teacher, at least
to participate in the lesson.

And as many times before when sorely tired and perplexed, Mary had
gone into her bed chamber and in secret poured out her heart unto the
Lord and got encouragement and solace therefrom, she now sought the Lord
in secret prayer, that she might have the inspiration from the Lord, that her
fears might be groundless; or that something might occur that would open
Alfred's eyes to the impending danger; and also that they might be able to
see and know the reason of their financial troubles and be given strength
and wisdom to overcome them and avert the impending financial disaster.

Meantime, Alfred listened to the discussion of the class on the sub-
ject of "Patriarchal Blessings" with only partial attention; in fact taking
but little part in the discussion.

For, with the announcing of the subject of the lesson his thoughts at
once reverted to the blessing given him by the stake patriarch when he was
in his teens, and which he was so enthusiastic over, that it took all the self-
control he could muster to obey the injunction of the good man, that "these
promises are for you, for your individual benefit, not for the public," and
not let his chums and all others who would listen know of the precious
promises made to him.

And he began wondering why these promises were not being fulfilled
the past few years, as they had been from the time they were given, through
the period of his young manhood, his young married life, and during his
mission, and a short time after. For certainly a number of the promises
had been literally fulfilled and none possible of fulfilment because of the
time indicated in the blessing had failed till the past few years. "What
could be the reason for this? Did the good man overreach himself and add
promises he was not inspired to make, or what is the matter?

The discussion had gone along similiar lines to his thoughts, and some
very pointed questions had been asked, and discussed, but only partially an-
swered. At least they had not been answered to the entire satisfaction of
Alfred and he was becoming plainly worried over the matter. For the events
of the day and evening were pressing hard upon him, and he was beginning
to doubt his ability to solve the financial problems that were pressing for
adjustment by his own strength and wisdom, and did not want to give way
to doubts on spiritual matters if he could help doing so. For he had testi-
fied many times of his knowledge of God's Latter-day work, and had been
a teacher of the people in many capacities. To doubt now would not
only stultify himself but would destroy all his hopes for the future and
make him miserable indeed.

And partially realizing this a feeling of humility came over him, and
with a mental prayer for Divine help (could it have been at the same time
that his dear wife was engaged in her secret supplications) , he asked Brother
Anderson, an aged high priest, who had come into the class, attracted by
parts of the discussion that he had overheard, if he could not throw light

110 IMPROVEMENT ERA

upon the subject and clear up the questions that had been only partly an-
swered.

This good brother had filled several missions, and important positions
in the Church, and was looked up to as a safe exponent of the principles
of the gospel.

This request being seconded by the class leader, Brother Anderson
quoted the passage from the Doctrine and Covenants, that opens this nar-
rative, and further explained that all blessings that are promised by the
Lord, either through the patriarchs or through other means, are on con-
ditions, not only of faithfulness to our sacred covenants, and obedience to
those placed by the Lord to advise, counsel, and direct us in our duties
and obligations, but also on condition that we comply with the particular
law upon which the coveted blessings are predicated.

"But," said Elder Jackson, "I understand that we are promised fi-
nancial success if we pay our tithing, and I know of many men not of our
Church who do not pay any tithing who are prospered financially much more
than any in our community who are good tithe payers."

"Yes; that is so, but we must remember that the Lord has told us also
that 'Where much is given much is required. We have received added light
and knowledge and have made covenants to serve the Lord and keep all his
commandments, and he sometimes withholds things from us because of our
lack of obedience, and p£rmits reverses to come to us, not only as a pun-
ishment, but also as a means to bring us to a realization of our true position
before him, which should bring repentance and a return to faithfulness.

"Besides, a financial success does not always mean financial blessing,
for in order that it be a blessing, it must be so to the extent that we are
capable of receiving and controlling, so that it will add to our faith and
the faith and well being spiritually as well as temporally of those dependent
upon us, and whose progress here and hereafter is so dear to our hearts.

"Then also, those who obtain much wealth, either Church members
or non-Church members, do so through obedience to sound financial prin-
ciples, not otherwise. Sometimes for punishment, for disregarding counsel,
the Lord withdraws his inspiration in temporal matters, and our judgment
is taken away, and we do things, little things, foolish things, that change
success into defeat, and we hardly know what has happened except that we
have met with loss and not with the expected gain; while doing the thing
just a little different would have brought gain and not loss."

The usual exclamations, "I for one would like to be tried with more
riches than I have," "I don't see why I could not profitably have a great
deal more than I have now," etc., were heard from members of the class and
after questions were asked and answered as to the working of other principles,
to the observance of which specific blessings are promised, as the observance
of the Word of Wisdom the keeping of the Sabbath day holy, etc., the les-
son was concluded.

The discussion had awakened such a train of thought in the mind. of
Alfred Haywood, that he scarcely realized that he was requested to prepare
the lesson for the next meeting, and when meeting was dismissed he seemed
to go out in a dazed condition. He forgot all about calling at the garage to
see the damaged auto, and upon arriving at his home, was startled out of
his apparent dreaming, by hearing his wife exclaim, "Why Alfred, what on
earth is the matter? You look like something dreadful has happened."

"No, dear," he answered, "not dreadful but wonderful."

"Well, what can it be?" she said in her anxiety, not waiting for him to
explain, so wrought up was she from the day's experiences, and now Alfred's
strange actions and words.

"I have had an awakening, thank the Lord. I now see the course I

SOME WORKINGS OF LAW 111

have been pursuing for so long past; and to think that you have tried to
enlighten me so many times and I was so deaf to your pleadings! I wonder
if you can ever forgive me and have the same confidence in me that you had
a few years ago?"

"Of course, I can, if there is anything to forgive and any need of a
renewal of confidence. But what is it all, and how has it come about?"

"Oh," said Alfred, "will it be possible to save ourselves from the
threatened loss of property, which does not seem of nearly the consequence
that it did a few hours ago? And of infinitely more importance, can I re-
trace my steps, merit the confidence of my brethren and the continued bless-
ings of the Lord, and oh, can we stop the foolish and wayward course of
our dear Paul and Mabel, and turn them toward the light and keep our
other children from treading the same dangerous way that my foolish actions
have started our older children in?"

"God grant it might be so!" reverently exclaimed Mary. "But do tell
me all about it, that I may rejoice with you and help in whatever there
is to do for our future happiness and advancement."

"Thank the Lord for you, my precious real helpmate," said Alfred as
he kissed her and lead her to a seat beside him on the davenport. "And now
I must tell you all, if it takes me till morning. For you are entitled to full
explanation and confidence."

Then he recounted all his experiences of the day, his attitude on going
to meeting, and as nearly as possible the outline of the discussion as it pro-
ceeded in the class; and his thoughts and feelings while the discussion were
going on, and the explanations that were made by Elder Anderson.

"Oh, how I do thank the Lord, Alfred, for this awakening. I have
prayed so long for it. And now it has come, I can hardly realize it. But,
come, let us go to rest and in the morning see if we cannot start off on a
new (or rather former) track and try and retrieve that which has been
lost."

"I am afraid that will be a long journey, dear, for the law seems
inexorable, that "whatsoever you sow, that also shall you reap." And if
you are not too tired, I should like to make the full confession of my past
errors and the explanation of the results of my actions as they have come
to me in this inspiration."

"Very well, dear, but make it as short as you can, for it is now
growing late."

"Well, to begin with, I now realize that my attitude soon after my
return from my mission, that my three years' missionary service was all
that ought to be expected of me for a while, was altogether wrong. Had I
taken it right, I would have known that the mission was an opportunity,
and that it should have made me more anxious than ever to work in the
service of the Lord. Did he not give all, yes, his very life, that we in
connection with all our Father's children might have eternal life? How
infinitesimal the little I can do, by constant labor, in comparison."

"Then, as I see it now, how ridiculous my excuse for staying away
from sacrament meetings so much, on the plea of the necessity of rest, when
that is a part of the program of the Lord to give us rest, through the re-
freshing of his Spirit."

"Yes, Alfred, and I wondered so much that you could not see it that
way, for I always came home from a good meeting rested and invigorated,
and more ready for my Monday's work than I did when I gave in to your
suggestions to stay at home and get a hot dinner."

"I can see it now. Then my next big mistake was when I went into
debt for the auto, I hadn't been to conference when the President spoke
against going into debt, and though I. read a synopsis of it in the papers

112 IMPROVEMENT ERA

and knew in general what the advice was, the reading did not convey the
inspiration under which he spoke, and I did not get it."

"Besides, others of our friends (you know them) were having their
good times running around, hither and thither, in their fine cars, and my
pride coupled with the importunities of the children, made me reckless, I
guess, and I felt that, come what may, those neighbors should not out-do
me and neither should their children have more advantages or pleasures than
mine."

"The result; I disobeyed the counsel of the Lord, saddled us with an
expense that our income would not justify; took Paul and me away from
our farm work many parts of days, that resulted in loss of revenue that
was so much needed; and contributed to the vanity and recklessness of our
children."

"But, why in the world did we not see it then? I confess that the
allurement blinded me as well as you. Why, oh, why, did we not know
better?"

"The only way I can figure it out is, that through neglect I had made
myself unworthy of the right inspiration."

"You will remember that the year before, I had kept putting off the
payment of our tithing, till I found myself at the end of the year with not
a fourth of it paid; and with taxes to be paid, and the inducement that was
offered of $1 a ton discount on our coal if bought all at once in December,
I used up all our ready cash and just let it go at that; instead of selling
something off the farm or borrowing it for a few weeks until the payment
would come in from what a neighbor was owing us. When Jed did pay
instead of paying the tithing as we should, I used it to make the first pay-
ment on the auto, that has, to say the least, not proved a blessing to us.
And ever since, from one excuse and another our tithing has not been paid in
full."

"And I can see now where many times, through lack of judgment, or
of care, or of foresight, losses here and there have come, that many times
exceed the amount of tithing I should have paid, that I did not pay. You
will remember how I turned the cows into the alfalfa that morning after the
frost and three of them died, worth fully $75 each; then the fine, two-year-
old colt that had to be killed because it broke its leg in that old bridge across
the canal that runs through our land. It was well worth $125 and I had
seen that hole in the bridge more times than one and intended fixing it, but
did not do so notwithstanding it wouldn't have taken over an hour's work
and a dollar's worth of material. And then, to cap the climax, I bought
that ten acres at fully double the price that it would bring today, if there
was any sale for it, which there is not."

"But, Alfred, that was the price offered by others and many were
increasing their holdings then, because prices were so good, and it appeared
that then was the chance, if ever, to increase ours to the amount that you
and Paul could care for. Why blame yourself for that?"

"It was increasing our debts, contrary to counsel, and the outcome
shows that if we had sought and obtained divine guidance, we would not
have bought it."

"Besides, last year we were strongly advised, almost pleaded with, to
plant sugar beets and because we received a fair price for our potatoes, the
year before, what must I do but plant potatoes again and realize hardly
enough to pay for digging them; while beets proved a very profitable crop,
especially with the two or three bonuses we have received."

"Then, I fear, there was a little resentment against planting beets, even
with me, for I had listened to so many insinuate that the inspiration back
of the advice to plant beets was the personal financial interests of the advisers

SOME WORKINGS OF LAW 113

who were supposed to own sugar stock, that I fear I was somewhat in-
fluenced by them; though I know now as I have always known that I
have never received counsel from our Church leaders, on any question, but
what was safe to follow and would bring good and not evil to all con-
cerned."

"Well, you seem pretty thoroughly convinced now of the right course
to pursue; but your evidence that you present to me seems to be mostly
of the negative character. I mean the results of disobedience. Have you
nothing positive to offer? It seems necessary to have some of this to marke
it entirely convincing."

This from Mary seemed unnecessary to Alfred, as on most points of
the questions involved, she had seemed convinced all along; although she
had thoroughly enjoyed the auto rides, and especially the extended trips 10
the Park, and to distant parts, visiting relatives and friends.

But Alfred was quick to answer:

"If our own experience, both 'before and after,' is not sufficient, just
consider Brother Downing. I heard the Bishop say not long ago, that he
believed that if any member of the Church paid an honest tithing, Brother
Downing is the man; 'for,' he said, 'he seems to tithe everything that comes
to him in property of every kind, as well as cash, and I never knew him to
go in debt for anything. He would go without very desirable things first.' "

"Well, what of him, he does not seem to me to be such a success? He
certainly hasn't got nearly as much property as we have."

"But what he has is paid for, and he has no fears of foreclosure or
other suits, and he has no 'duns,' camouflaged as statements, to worry him
every month. Besides, his family are well housed and always well dressed,
even if they don't excite the envy of the banker's daughter by following the
extreme fashions. Then he has sustained two of his sons on quite long
missions, and I heard the other day that his daughter Amy was called and
that she intends going right away. I fear that if Paul or Mabel were called,
we would at least have to ask for quite a delay in order to get enough means
to even start them out, and it would be questionable whether we could keep
them in the mission field long enough for them to get really interested in
the work; and I have noticed that a large percentage of those who have to
come home before they have been there from one and one-half to two years
are very tired with everything and everybody and it is very hard indeed to
induce them to do further work in the Church."

"You never hear of Brother Downing losing any cattle or horses in
a careless way, and he didn't buy land when the price was out of sight, but
waited till he could pay for it and then got it at a reasonable figure."

"You don't say he has been buying land now?"

"Yes, he bought twenty acres last week, better land than the ten acres
we bought and at less than half the price, as he had cash to pay for it."

"Well, now we see our true situation I hope matters will go moie
smoothly."

"I do not know how soon, dear. It does seem, that as far as finances
go, it is "death-bed repentance" on my part, but with your help I am going
to make the struggle, seek forgiveness, and retrace our footsteps the best way
possible to save ourselves, and our dear children, and, the Lord being willing,
what we can of our property."

"Yes, Alfred, it will be a long, hard struggle, and if we can get back in
four or five years to where we were that long ago, oh, how thankful I
will be!"

And indeed the outlook was somewhat discouraging. For it is so
easy to go into debt; but it requires long struggle and economy to live and
pay. It is easy to let the youth fed by vanity and pleasure-seeking go the

114 IMPROVEMENT ERA

way of their inclinations, but it takes tact and patience and "love unfeigned"
to draw them back to the straight and narrow path of service and seeking
after the Lord.

They will find it very difficult at times to keep their feet firmly planted,
in following the path they know must be trodden in order to fully succeed
in their renewed determination. The insistent demands of creditors and the
needs and importunities of loved ones are so much more personal, and in a
way seem more tangible, than are the laws and promises of the Lord, that
often before they fully realize what they are doing, their income will be
promised or spent before it gets into their hands. They will find themselves
trying to excuse themselves from fully meeting their obligations to the Lord,
on the plea that he is merciful and long-suffering. They forget that it was
their own lack of obedience that brought their present condition.

But they know the way, if they only can follow it; and with faith
and humility, and the courage and determination that were in evidence dur-
ing the first few weeks of Alfred's awakening, there is reason to hope that
their success is fully assured.

Preston, Idaho

M. I. A. Slogan

We stand for divine guidance through individual and family prayer.

What relief, in time of sorrow,

Through our prayers sweet peace to borrow

From our heavenly Father, through his mercy and his love;

'Tis a joy beyond all measure,

Far above all earthly treasure,
'Tis the means of sweet communion from above.

When our days are full of trouble,

And our trials seem to double,

When the path ahead is dark and full of gloom ;

There's no need to sit repining,

For the sun will soon be shining,
If we'll only kneel in secret prayer within our room.

Or, in time of real rejoicing,

We can put our thoughts in voicing,

Sending thanks and praise unto our Mighty God.

It will strengthen us and brighten,

And our burdens it will lighten,
And 'twill help us to hold firmly to the rod. -

For our M. I. A. stands ready;

A hundred thousand youth so steady;

'Tis their slogan, and they'll live it day by d:,y.

It will keep them all from sinning,

It will be a fine beginning
For each youth of Zion now must learn to pray.

Mesa, Arizona Ida R. AUdredge

THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE

By J. Arthur Horne

Attorney James Brown stood on the sidewalk of Sixth Avenue
and gazed at the half-finished structure which was to be his home.
Busy workmen were engaged with hammer and trowel on various
parts of the building; while great piles of brick and stone, lumber,
and shining slabs of marble were strewn about the grounds indicat-
ing the palatial nature of this modern dwelling. While the lawyer
stood there enjoying this scene of activity a smile overspread his
handsome features. This was the fulfilment of one of his dreams —
to have one of the finest homes in the city. Success was perching
upon his banner now. In the early years of his struggle he . had
prayed for success. It had come slowly at first, but finally by pa-
tient effort and the influence of friends he had reached the goal at last.
Providence, he concluded, had had nothing to do with it.

A man in a dark suit, evidently the architect in charge, came
out of the building and joined the lawyer on the sidewalk.

"Billings, I have to leave for the coast this afternoon. The Oil
Lands case has been called for the first week in October, and I'm
not half ready. I will probably be gone all winter."

"We'll not be through here before the latter part of April, anyway,
Mr. Brown, so you'll likely be back before we finish the interior,"
replied the architect. "The city department gave us the house
number this morning. It is 914."

The lawyer took from his pocket a small note book and jotted
down the number.

"Don't slight anything, Billings, even if it goes a little over the
estimate. A man builds only one house like this in a lifetime." And
so saying the great lawyer turned and entered his waiting automobile
and was driven away.

The same morning that this incident occurred another James
Brown also stood on the sidewalk in front of his home. He, too,
was going away to try his fortune in another state. Thus far suc-
cess had not perched upon his banner. No automobile was to take
him to the railroad station. No huge retaining fee had been sent him
to insure the success of his venture. He was not thinking of the
grandeur of his home, but of the sweet-faced, blue-eyed woman who
stood in the doorway with a baby in her arms to have a final parting
word with her husband ere he left for the mines in Nevada. "Don't take
any risks, Jim," she said. "Better a whole skin than taking a chance
on your life."

"Don't worry, Alice, I'll be back safe and sound, never fear.
Kiss Jamie and "Winnie and Ted for me when they come home from

116 IMPROVEMENT ERA

school and tell them Daddy expects some little letters to come along
with yours." With a wave of his hand he turned and walked
briskly away.

Alice turned to her household duties with a heavy heart. She
loved her husband dearly and missed him when he went away. In
their earlier married life she had accompanied him to several of the
camps where he worked as an assayer, but since the children were
old enough to attend school she had been compelled to stay at home.
Jim was a steady worker and having no bad habits they had always
had plenty for their needs, and had managed to lay aside a little in
the bank with the hopes of some day buying a home of their own.

Jim's first letter from Nevada told of a change in his plans.
"I've decided to take a lease," he wrote. "There's a fine fellow
here named Bill Stauffer who will go with me. The mining company
agrees to furnish transportation to the railroad for our ores at the
same rate they pay for their own. I see no reason why we shouldn't
clean up a bunch of money." Later letters confirmed this hopeful
view, and under date of Dec. 4, 1919, he wrote:

"We have found some more rich pockets of ore. We have
about 15 tons on the dump that runs 160 ounces in silver and 45%
lead. At present prices this should bring us nearly $2,000 apiece. As
soon as we get 20 or 25 tons we'll make a shipment, and I'll come
in with it."

The last few words thrilled Alice more than any thought of
the money. Two thousand dollars sounded good, but the idea of
soon seeing Jim again overshadowed everything else. She sang at
her work, and when the children came home from school she took
them in her arms one at a time and hugged them with delight.

"Papa's coming home soon, children," she told them. The
little ones took hold of hands and circled about in high glee singing
in their sweet, childish voices, "Daddy's coming home again! Daddy's
coming home again!" Then Jamie stood on his head and Ted turned
somersaults — all because daddy was coming home.

Just before Christmas, however, came the first letter of disap-
pointment. "Well, dearie, I guess I can't come home for awhile
yet, after all. We're snowed in for the winter. It started snowing
Thursday and kept it up until last night. The dugway down to
the camp is drifted level with the mountain. We'll have to store our
ore in the tunnel until the road clears in the spring. This morning
we struck another pocket that looks like it ought to be good for four
or five tons.

"Christmas will be a bit lonesome, but maybe it'll be the last
one I'll have to spend away from home."

By spring Jim figured they had nearly $20,000 worth of
ore stored in the tunnel. Already the price of silver had begun to
decline. A feeling of uncertainty pervaded the mining industry. Every-
where the highgrade ores were rushed to the smelter.

THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE 117

"The snow is melting rapidly," Jim wrote in March. "We
expect to get a wagon through within a week and start our ore to the
railroad. Just think, dearie, nearly $10,000 for us. It means a
home and maybe a small car. I don't care so much about the car
if I can just see you in your own home with a nice bathroom, and a
piano for Winnie to take lessons on."

Silver continued its downward course and lead began to fol-
low. "We can't get the mining company to furnish us a single
team to move our ore," he wrote in April. "They're so anxious
to get their own ore to the smelter they don't give a hang about us.
They keep promising but never do anything. This is terrible. Our
ore has shrunk to half its value and still not a pound has been moved.
I'm going to strike out for one of the ranches across the valley in
the morning and see if I can get a team and wagon."

Later he wrote that he had secured the much-needed team for
the trifling sum of $10 a day. "Had I known the mining company
was going to treat us like this I would have hired this team a month
ago. Well, never mind, sweetheart, the ore will still net us several
thousand dollars. I guess we are not the only ones who are hard hit by
the slump; the mines are closing down all around here."

A few days later Alice beheld a blue-coated messenger boy dis-
mount from his bicycle in front of her house and come up the walk.
With trembling fingers she signed for the telegram and hastened into
her bedroom to read it:

Lone Pine Mountain, Nevada, May 19, 1920.
Mrs. James Brown
914 Sixth East St., City.

Jim injured hauling ore. Will reach city four-thirty today.

Wm. Stauffer.

Alice crushed the telegram in her hands and offered a silent
prayer that Jim's injuries would not prove serious. She was nearly
wild with uncertainty and dread. Why did telegrams have to be
so cruelly brief? If she only knew the extent of his injuries it would
not be so bad, but the uncertainty allowed her imagination to run
riot, and she pictured him in all sorts of mangled conditions. One
thought alone comforted her — she would see him soon again. At this
thought she sprang up and began a hasty tidying of the rooms. She
put clean sheets on the bed and made up the fire so that everything
would be in readiness upon his arrival. As soon as the children came
home from school she got them ready and took them with her to the
depot, leaving the baby, however, in the care of a neighbor.

The first thing that caught her eye when she stepped off the street
car at the depot was a white ambulance backed up before the doorway.
The telegram had not said anything about providing such a thing for
Jim; it must be for someone else. Just the same she felt irresistibly

1 1 8 IMPROVEMENT ERA

drawn toward the ambulance and approaching the driver she asked,
"Are you waiting for someone coming in on the train?"

"Yes, a miner got hurt out in Nevada. He's comin' in on the
4:30." Her heart sank. Poor Jim! How he must be suffering!
She turned to the driver with one more question.

"Do you happen to know the man's name?"

"No, they didn't tell me that. They just said to meet the 4:30
and bring back a miner that got hurt out in Nevada." He must have
seen the look of apprehension on her face for he asked kindly, "Was
you expectin' somebody sick on this train?"

"Yes," she said, "my husband. He was injured hauling ore, but
I do not know how badly. I was not expecting this," indicating the
ambulance. She had hard work to keep back the tears. The children
must not see mother cry. By an effort she controlled herself, and tak-
ing a little hand in each of hers they went into the waiting room.

When the train pulled in Alice was standing with the children
on the platform, and when it came to a stop she eagerly scanned
the car exits for sight of her husband. Presently she saw the white-
coated driver of the ambulance approach one of the cars and she
hurried over to him. A man on a stretcher was being carried down
the car steps. One hand dangled limply over the edge of the stretcher,
and Alice barely suppressed a cry. She stood beside the injured man
as he was lowered to the platform. Yes. it was Jim, his face only
half visible beneath the bandages. She almost flung herself on the
stretcher. "O Jim, Jim, what has happened? Are you badly hurt?"
He smiled wanly, and she tried to take his head in her arms. A groan
escaped his lips as her hands went under his head and she quickly
withdrew them. "Oh, did I hurt you? Forgive me, forgive me, I
hardly know what I'm doing."

"It's his back, Mrs. Brown," said a kindly voice. She glanced
up into the face of a stalwart man in the garb of a miner. "I'm
Bill Stauffer; I guess you've heard of me. Them cuts on his face
don't amount to nothin'. You see the rough-lock broke comin' down
the steep road; he had to turn the horses up the mountain an' the
load tipped over. If it wasn't for his back he'd be fit as any man in a
few days."

The children began to cry when they saw their father lying there
so limp and helpless. The injured man raised his right hand and
patted Winnie's dark curls. His voice was low — almost a whisper.
"Don't you cry, children, Daddy' 11 be all right pretty soon." This
comforted them. Thus strong is the faith of childhood. Not so with
Alice; his grave words only added to her grief.

The big miner and the chauffeur carried Jim to the waiting
ambulance and he was driven away to the hospital. Half an hour
later Alice was seated beside her husband's cot in the hospital awaiting
the arrival of the doctor.

And the next morning's paper which contained among the local

THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE 119

items a brief account of Jim Brown's accident had blazoned forth on
the front page a picture of the state's noted lawyer James Brown and
an accompanying article telling of his success in winning the first of
his Oil Land cases in California.

We need not follow Jim and Alice throughout the long, hot
days of summer while Jim lay in his plaster cast at the hospital,
hoping and praying for the return of his health. In a way they were
happy days, for not since their honeymoon had they been so much in
each other's company. They were lovers once more with four ad-
ditional knots binding their hearts together.

At last the day came when the cast was removed and Jim once
more stood upon his feet free from its hateful pressure. He turned
and twisted his body about to make sure that his cure was complete.
"Thank God there's no pain now," he said fervently.

"Maybe it's all for the best, Jim," Alice returned with shining,
tear-stained eyes as she watched him walk about the little room. Prov-
idence has queer ways of doing things sometimes, you know."

"Yes," he said, and he stopped to look intently into the blue
eyes, "Providence did me a good turn when it led me to your
father's door, for no man ever had a sweeter wife than you have been
to me, dear."

Throughout all this trying period Alice's faith and trust in God
had never wavered, but now it seemed as if all things conspired
together to break her spirit. When Jim left the hospital he entered
the great army of unemployed who walked the streets of our cities
from the fall of 1920 until the spring of 1922. Mines were closing
down or running only part time; stores and factories were cutting
their forces; building was almost at a standstill; and gaunt poverty
and distress were on every hand. The twelve hundred dollars which
Jim had received as his portion of the mining venture was about ex-
hausted when his hospital and doctor bills were paid. Still their
hearts were brave when they returned to their humble home on Sixth
East, and Jim set out early the next morning to try and find employ-
ment.

The first person he encountered was Joe Sanders, a brother as-
sayer. "Still with the King Company, Joe?" Jim asked.

"No, they closed down two months ago. Didn't you know?"

"I hadn't heard. I've been in the hospital, so I guess I'm not
up on the latest news. What are you driving at now?"

"Hunting another job," Joe answered. "And you?"

"Same thing. Are jobs really that scarce?"

"I'll say they are." They wished each other luck and passed on.
Jim called in at several assay offices where he was well known and in
each of them he found men seeking employment. At first he was
not discouraged. He was a good assayer and had never before ex-
perienced any difficulty getting a position. As the days wore on,
however, the full extent of the mining collapse became apparent.

120 IMPROVEMENT ERA

"I guess I'll have to find some other kind of work," he told
Alice when he returned after the third day's trial. "There seems to
be more assayers than the market requires." Poor Jim! In the next
few days he was to learn that there were more men in every line of
work than the market required. Night after night, footsore and weary,
he dragged his way homeward. Their small savings dwindled rapidly
and were finally wiped out. Not once in all this trying period did his
brave little wife fail to greet him with a smile and whisper words
of encouragement when he left the door.

The first work he got was helping a man clean out a store that
had just been vacated by a shoe company. For this he received
fifty cents. Then he got three days' work helping unload coal at
one of the coal yards and was paid a ton of coal, which he was thank-
ful to get. His grocer, Mr. Gibson, gave him a job cleaning out the
back room and basement of the store and cutting up a pile of boxes into
kindling wood. For this work he was given credit for twelve dollars
on account. In six weeks he had received in actual cash in hand the
total sum of fifty cents.

"Things will soon take a turn for the better, I am sure," Alice
said when he reviewed these little items to her one evening in No-
vember. He was going over his accounts while she sat mending a
pair of Ted's trousers. "Did you see Mr. Shultz about that work
at the smelter?"

"Yes, he's going out in a few days, and if anything turns up he'll
let me me know."

On December 10 Jim received a note from Mr. Gibson asking
him to call at his earliest convenience. "I know what that means,"
Jim remarked grimly. "It means no more groceries on credit." He
was right. When he called to see Mr. Gibson he was told that the
store was carrying so many unpaid bills that it would be ruinous to in-
crease them.

"I'm sorry to have to do this, Brown, but it would soon come to
the same thing anyway. The wholesalers will cut me off if I get in
much deeper. I will carry your account as it now stands until you can
get work, but that is the best I can do."

"Mr. Gibson, I appreciate all you have done for me, and I hope
I can soon pay you every dollar I owe you." The kind-hearted grocer
leaned across the counter and laid a hand on Jim's arm.

"I know you do, Brown, and as soon as you get in work again
I shall be glad to re-open your account until you draw your first pay."

"Thanks, Mr. Gibson." And with that Jim turned and walked
out of the store. Life seemed a little less joyous to him as he wended
his way homeward. Who would have thought a year ago that today
would find him in such a plight?

"We still have some flour and coal," Alice said when he re-
ported the interview to her, and added, "and a Father above, don't
forget that, Jim."

THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE 121

He threw his arms about her and held her close. "And the
bravest little wife that God ever sent to earth."

A few days later a snowstorm netted Jim several dollars clean-
ing sidewalks, and on December 21a letter came from Shultz telling
him to come out to the smelter and see if he could not get on there,
as he had heard some talk of them putting on another man. A dollar
was enclosed to pay his fare there and back.

The next day Jim was at the plant seeking an interview with
Superintendent Maclntyre. For three days he persisted, staying at night
with his friend Shultz. On the morning of the twenty-fourth he was
informed, rather gruffly, that they would not put on another man be-
fore the first of the year, if at all. "We'll keep you in mind and if we
need anyone we'll let you know," the foreman said more kindly
as he noted the look of pain come into Jim's face at this blow to his
hopes. For some time Jim wandered about the plant not caring
to meet anyone. His tongue was dry and parched, and he quenched
his thirst repeatedly at the little fountain near the furnace-room. At
four o'clock he boarded the train for home.

He entered the first car he came to, which happened to be the
smoker. He had barely sunk down into the seat when he heard a
voice behind him say, "Well, Brown, this is providential to find you
here." He turned at sound of his name and beheld Superintendent
Maclntyre shaking hands with the man in the next seat back of him.
He rceognized the man instantly as the great lawyer who had gone
to California to plead the famous Oil Land cases.

"I don't know whether it was Providence or not that put me on
this train, but I'm surely glad to see you, Mac," the lawyer returned
laughing.

"Same old atheist, eh?" the superintendent rejoined. "Anyway
I've a letter here for you from Edith which arrived from Butte this
morning. She wanted me to be sure you received it before night."

"Hasn't Edith returned from Butte yet?" There was evident dis-
appointment not unmixed with annoyance in his tone.

"No, she'll be down on the 10:30 tonight. Go ahead and read
the letter — read it to me if you like." There was the sound of tearing
paper as the envelope was torn open and then Jim heard the following:

"Your telegram came as a great surprise. I had just received
your letter saying you could not be home before the first of the year.
I'm so glad we can spend Christmas together. The kiddies are wild
with delight. The house is all ready for us, everything was moved
before I left, only I let Mrs. McGregor go home for the holidays. Never
mind, I can cook a better Christmas dinner than she can. I can't bear
to think of spending Christmas in a hotel, and there won't be room
at Will's — Florence and the children are coming down with me —
so we'll just have to go to our own home. Jim, it's the grandest thing
I ever looked at, even our best pieces of furniture look shabby among

122 IMPROVEMENT ERA

such brilliant settings. Oh, I wouldn't miss spending Christmas
there for worlds, now that you are going to be with us.

"I've made out a list of groceries and some things for the chil-
dren's Christmas which I will enclose. If you'll order them sent up
to the house we'll have the finest Christmas ever. The house number
is 914, don't forget that. Meet us at the train, sure."

More rattling of paper and then, "Just look at this list will you
Mac, it's as long as your arm." They both laughed heartily.

"Trust a woman to think of the details." This from the su-
perintendent.

To the lone man in the seat ahead all this seemed staged to mock
his poverty. "Some men have everything and some nothing," Jim
said to himself bitterly. "This fellow will spend his Christmas liter-
ally in the lap of luxury, while I have not a penny to take home to
my wife and children." A spirit of rebellion arose in his soul at the
scurvy trick fate had played him. Alice always credited things to
Providence, but this man who revelled in wealth and groceries had no
faith in Providence. Perhaps it was simply that some men knew how
to make money and others didn't and Providence cared not a whit.
This thought was gall to his soul.

When their train reached the city, Jim felt too depressed to
go home and he wandered about the streets for some time. Loads of
good things stared at him from the store windows, and on the streets
crowds of people were hurrying along carrying bulging bags and
bundles that foretold a happy Christmas on the morrow. He alone
of all that vast throng seemed penniless and forsaken. Surely Provi-
dence would not pass his family by so cruelly. Just then a paper bag
burst in the arms of a woman, scattering potatoes over the sidewalk.
She gathered them up hastily. One she missed. Jim picked it up and
put it in his pocket. "This will be our Christmas dinner," he said,
and laughed bitterly. It grew colder, and he turned his footsteps home-
ward.

Alice tried to greet him with a smile when he opened the door,
but when she saw the drawn look on his face she burst into tears. He
put his arm about her and led her to a chair in the kitchen. The
children had placed the broom across the backs of two chairs and
hanging suspended from it were four stockings of varying lengths.
"It wouldn't be so bad for us," Alice sobbed on his shoulder, "we
could stand it, but the children — not a thing in the house for their
Christmas. Whatever in the world are we going to do, Jim? Do
you think God doesn't care?" What could he say? It was the echo
of his own thought. He was about to speak when their attention
was arrested by a quick step on the back porch and a hurried thump
on the door. Jim got up and opened the door. A young fellow in
overalls and jumper smeared with flour confronted them.

"Is this number 914?" he asked. Jim nodded assent. "We've
brought your groceries; where'll we put 'em?"

THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE 123

"I didn't order any groceries," Jim answered. "You must have
the wrong number."

"Ain't your name Brown, James Brown?" the young fellow per-
sisted, looking at a paper in his hand.

"Yes," Jim answered, puzzled.

"This is the place all right. We'll back in." He dashed off
into the darkness, and the next moment they heard the chug of a
motor. The rear end of a big truck loomed out of the darkness and
bumped into the porch. Two men began piling things onto the
porch. Sacks of flour, potatoes, and sugar; cases of soap, canned milk,
fruit, and vegetables; boxes, bundles, and packages of every descrip-
tion, were unceremoniously dumped onto the porch or carried into
the kitchen, while the bewildered family stood about in utter amaze-
ment. When a pretty Christmas tree appeared, the silence was sud-
denly broken by cries and exclamations of delight from the children,
and the tree was carried triumphantly into the front room.

"Who sent all this?" Jim finally asked one of the men.

"I dunno, Mister; Santa Claus, I reckon." The next minute
the two men climbed into their truck and rode off into the night.

Jim and Alice looked into each other's faces questioningly. Jim
was the first to speak. "Who in the world could have sent them?"

"It must have been Bill Stauffer," she answered. "He sent a
card saying he would see us at Christmas time. You see he had
twelve hundred dollars from the lease, the same as we did."

Jim shook his head. "No, Alice, the check he sent us was the
total received from our ore. I saw a copy of the account while I
was out at the smelter. The big-hearted fellow kept not one cent
for himself. No, it must have been someone else."

Still mystified, they began to look over the things. A box of
brilliant-colored trimmings came first into view. These were seized
upon by the children and carried into the front room where Jamie was
already setting up the tree. Alice next uncovered two beautiful dolls
and hastily hid them in her bedroom. Doll carriages, a tricycle, books,
games, and toys were quickly hidden away. Candies, nuts, oranges,
and apples followed. A turkey she laid on the table. By this time
Alice was in a perfect fever of delight. "I just knew the Lord would
not forsake us!" she said.

But Jim still felt that all was not right. At first he had been
stunned by this sudden change from poverty to affluence, but now he
began to collect his scattered wits. He went out onto the porch and
looked the things over. With a sickening sensation the truth suddenly
dawned on him; this was undoubtedly the supply Attorney Brown
had ordered for his own home. Someone at the store had blundered.
Instead of delivering the things to Sixth Avenue they had been brought
to Sixth East. He remembered now the house number the lawyer
had read from the letter was 914 — the same as his. An error such as
this would probably hot occur in any other city in the United States.

124 IMPROVEMENT ERA

"Of course the mistake will be discovered as soon as Attorney Brown
reaches his home and finds the things have not been delivered. He'll
call the store, and the things will be traced to us. Anyway, I'll have
to notify the store. These thnigs are not meant for us at all."

Shouts of joyous laughter came to him from the house and
pierced his heart like knife thrusts. "My poor, little kiddies!" he
exclaimed, "I'm afraid your joy will be short lived." With a groan
he sat down on one of the boxes and covered his face with his hands.
"And Alice, my dear, sweet, angel wife! It will nearly break her
heart when she learns the truth." O God in heaven, avert the blow!"
Tears welled up into his eyes, and in the darkness his chin quivered.

How long he sat thus he did not know. He was roused by the
sound of an automobile stopping in front of the house. He got up
and walked over beyond the edge of the building and peered out. In
the darkness he made out the figure of a man just stepping from an
automobile. "It's all over," he said to himself in a choking voice, "all
over." He leaned against the porch post to steady himself for a minute
or two, and then went slowly into the house.

When he reached the door that opened into the front room he
swung it open unnoticed and stopped within the shadow. Just inside
the front door, hat in hand, stood Attorney Brown. Ted had evi-
dently let him in, for Alice with flushed face and shining eyes was
coming out from behind the gayly decorated tree. She stared in
astonishment at sight of the unexpected visitor. 'Well, how-do-you-
do?" she greeted him cheerily.

"I ordered some things sent — sent — ," the lawyer began awk-
wardly. Alice advanced toward him.

"Are you the one who so generously sent us these things?" she
asked in amazement. He winked his eyes a couple of times and ap-
peared to swallow something.

"A — a — , yes, ma'am." Alice went to him and took his hand
in both of hers.

"God bless your kind heart," she said fervently, and there were
tears in her eyes when she said it. "I don't know who you are, but I
know that Providence sent you to us in our time of need. You can-
not know what it means to go day after day, month after month with-
out employment, never knowing one day what you will have to eat the
next. Surely God put it in your heart to do this noble deed." She
released his hand, and he shifted his weight awkwardly from one foot
to the other.

"I'm afraid you are giving me more credit than I deserve," he
replied. Then a merry twinkle came into his eyes and he smiled
good-humoredly. "I thought I'd just take a run down and see if the
things were delivered all right."

Jim was struggling to adjust himself to the unexpected turn
the case had taken. He advanced into the room extending his hand
which the other took in a hearty handshake. "I don't know how to

THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE 125

thank you, but I'll repay you as soon as I can get to earning again."
The attorney laid his hand on Jim's shoulder.

"Now, don't talk about paying me, nor thanking me, either, or
you'll spoil it all. This is the first time in my life I've ever been a real
Santa Claus." He looked at the children playing about the tree, talking
in suppressed excited tones, their little hearts almost bursting with joy.
Never had they dreamed of a Christmas like this. The scene evidently
touched the heart of the great lawyer, for he took the chair Alice of-
fered him and sat for some time gazing at them in silence. "My!" he
finally exclaimed, "I wouldn't have missed this for a thousand dol-
lars." He arose and turned to Jim.

"Let's see, you say you are out of employment, Mr. — Mr. — ."

"Brown, the same as yours," Jim answered. The lawyer looked
startled for a moment.

"Oh — , oh yes, I see. What is your occupation, Mr. Brown?"
Jim told him. "Assayer? Good! My brother-in-law is superintend-
ent of the smelter." He took a card from his pocket and handed it to
Jim. "If you'll call at my office any time after tomorrow I'll give you
a letter to him. He'll find a place for you. Well, I must be going.
I've a few purchases to make before the stores close." He bowed
gracefully to Alice. "Good-night," he said, then sweeping the room
with his glance added, "and a Merry Christmas to everyone."

"Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!" chorused after him as
he closed the door.

The parents looked at each other in silence for a moment, then
Alice put her arms around her husband's neck and drew his face down
to hers. "Now, will you say the Lord isn't watching over us?" she
challenged.

And he answered, "I wouldn't dare."

While outside Attorney Brown just settling himself in his auto-
mobile was saying, "By Jove! this is surely a peculiar experience.
Could there be any truth in what that sweet little woman said about
Providence bringing this about? I wonder!" And he drove off.

Salt Lake City, Utah

Rest Awhile

"Come ye yourselves apart and rest,"

Said Christ to me and you,
A time of patient resting, dear,

For us, and roses too,
Will give us chance to grow again

And loveliness renew.

Hobact Tasmania A. C. A. Dean Hewer

THRILLING EXPERIENCE

Of Four "Mormon" Missionaries in the
Tokyo Disaster

By Ernest B. Woodward, Secretary of the Japan Mission

To write what one has actually experienced is often very diffi-
cult. In the following account of our experiences I have endeavored
to portray as nearly as I can to the readers of the Era, just how we
felt, how we were delivered from death and destruction when two
thirds of the city of Tokyo was destroyed by fire following the earth-
quake of September 1, 1923. My desire is that what I write may
be of help to those who shall read it, and that the testimony of my
brethren here in Tokyo, myself included, may cause someone to think
seriously of the wonders of God.

' 'Earthquake ! Earthquake ! ! "

What a horrifying thing to most of us! If you have ever ex-
perienced such a thing, you will understand me when I say that they
make one feel so small, so insignificant, that you wonder how you
ever thought yourself so much! To me earthquakes are not novel,
having experienced many since coming to Japan, but experience only
seems to teach me fear. Is it a fear of death? In a sense, Yes! Yet
in another, No! I don't fear death half so much as I fear being
maimed for life. That is why I fear earthquakes so badly!

Usually, much the same as the hiss of a rattlesnake, there is some
sort of warning before an earthquake, but this time there was no such
thing. As from apparently nowhere it came. Into nowhere it went;
but what a difference!

I was writing letters; had been, all morning. Suddenly without
warning, the house gave a terrific lurch! Pictures crashed to the floor,
smashing the glass, giving rise to more confusion! The plaster swayed,
then breaking loose crashed to the floor! Books, chairs, in fact every-
thing which could fall, tumbled to the floor, making it apparent that
one should not be inside!

By this time the oscillations had increased, until it was next to
impossible for one to stand or walk! To remain inside seemed folly.
Might not the house collapse? Might not a thousand other unexpected
things happen? Apparent safety awaited us outside, but was it safety?
Suddenly a crash from outside, as a pile of roof-tile fell to the
ground right where we might have been, had we followed our first
impulse and rushed out! That was sufficient! We decided to take
our chances inside! In readiness we stood by the open door and
waited, w,hat seemed an age, while the earth pitched and rolled! The
house rattled and creaked! While the din from the earthquake itself
was most deafening!

THRILLING EXPERIENCE IN TOKYO DISASTER ' 127

How long we waited none of us know, but it seemed ages! When
at last the earth regained itself we went outside! What a sight greeted
our eyes! In one corner of the lot, through a small aperture in the
fence, the people of the neighborhood were filing in! Their faces
blanched, their step uncertain, they came into the lot to look around
at what had once been their home! The sight was almost more than
one could stand, and yet one couldn't help but admire. Almost every-
one carried a baby, leaning far over its squirming form to protect it
from flying bits of houses, or falling roof tiles. It was a sight which
will remain with me through life.

Another terrific jerk and we were in the midst of another one!
Another kind of fear betook us! We had heard of the ground open-
ing up and letting people in! This one, however, didn't last as long
as the other, so our fears were stilled for a moment. Only for a mo-
ment, though! No sooner had this one ceased than another followed!
This followed by another, and another until one lost the count! (The
Meteorological Observatory reported 356 shocks on the 1st; 289 on
the 2nd; and 173 on the 3rd.) Thus were our fears kept alive
throughout the day and night, until one almost wished the first shock
had been successful? But still we were worth three dead men yet, so
we decided to live on!

"A fire! Tokyo is on fire! Entire down-town district in flames!"
was the news that greeted us, as a dense cloud of smoke began to
arise in that direction. But we had work at home! No! Our house
was not on fire, but not far away the district was already in flames'
The earthquake had caused a panic. People had left their homes, and
being the noon-hour a fire burned in every house. The houses had
collapsed with the first hard shake, and fire came as a natural result.
Almost before it could be realized, fire had broken out in every part
of the city!

At the first alarms, the firemen gallantly rushed to the scene!
They fought bravely! They pitted their strength and wisdom against
that of the onrushing adversary! It was a battle in which the fates
of thousands were to be determined! Ah! It couldn't go to the
foe! The lives of thousands of Tokyo's citizens hung in the balance,
and it seemed the firemen were winning, when an unlooked for thing
happened! The supply of water, the City water- works, was dry!
The first severe shock had disabled the pumps, and fifteen minutes of
fire-fighting in all parts of the city, had been sufficient to exhaust the
supply !

Not to be beaten by this disastrous stroke of fate, the firemen
moved to points of vantage and set their powerful pumps to work
pumping water from the moats and rivers. This, however, had given
the fire more chance, and fanned by the ever changing wind, it had
raced on! When the fight was again resumed, it was apparent that
the men had lost ground! They fought a gallant fight! They dyna-
mited buildings in a last effort to cut off its onslaught, but to no

128 IMPROVEMENT ERA

avail! Pushed by the wind which had almost reached the velocity
of a gale, the flames jumped these gaps, crossed over streets, streams
and alleys where, joined by other fires, it had by nightfall united into
one mighty conflagration!

As viewed from the hill at Hanzomon that night, it was one
seething ocean of fire! It seemed to completely surround the Imperial
Palace, which had proved a haven of retreat to thousands who had
rushed to its spacious grounds for protection. It was a veritable hell
on earth! Occasionally, through a rift in the smoke and flame, a
familiar building could be seen, only to be enveloped instantly again
in the surging sea of flame!

Its roar was like that of an angry sea beating against the rocks!
Its light, low and mellow, was like a twilight afterglow! It was
awful! Think of the lives of men and beasts being sacrificed in that
angry flame! Think of the property, that which man had prided
himself in, being reduced to ashes! Is it any wonder that the people
of Tokyo, finding no solution for the thing, groped around for some-
thing upon which to lay the blame, and finding nothing else but the
Koreans, mobbed and slew them? No! For the deafening roar, the
blinding smoke, and terrible suspense that the people were in, was
enough to drive people insane. They were insane, and the poor
Koreans suffered! God alone knows how many of these people were
put to death during the first three days of the fire! It was a false
alarm, and even the Japanese themselves do not try to justify it now,
but the innocent Koreans were dragged from their homes, to be beaten
and kicked by a raving mob, until blessed unconsciousness rendered
their suffering nil, and death in the end brought release from an exist-
ence among an unfriendly and unforgiving people. God alone must
judge them and their offenders, for we in our weak mortal state, are
prone to err in such cases. That the Japanese were in their own minds
justified, we cannot say, but the facts in the case have proved the
Koreans to be innocent of any offense, and the Japanese wholly the
aggressors.

While this war on the Koreans raged heavily, the fire had not
ceased! Indeed, if that be possible, it had increased its speed! Cer-
tainly it had grown broader! By day dense clouds of black smoke
rolled forth to proclaim itself to the world, that Tokyo still burned!
By night, a light almost to defy the powers of the sun, proclaimed
the same sad story! Oh! That I might tell you of my feelings at
this time, but I cannot! Words refuse to describe such things, and
in fact, even now, I cannot understand what they were.

For three days and nights the onslaught continued! At the end,
a blessed downpour of rain, when there was but little left to burn,
succeeded in extinguishing the once mighty conflagration. It had
done its ^ work! It had won the battle and had raced on until there
was nothing left but smouldering ruins of the once great Tokyo, the
pride of all Japan. Even the godowns were burned! In fact there

THRILLING EXPERIENCE IN TOKYO DISASTER

129

Top: A pile of human bones at Shifukusho, one of the thousands like it. They
have a pile several feet high of ashes which have been sifted. It was here
before the bodies were burned that the stench was so unbearable.

Bottom: The picture is of Maruzen Co., now a hopeless wreck. It shows the
work of earthquake and fire. Notice the bent steel, the twisted metal doors,
broken and cracked cement pillars — one of thousands like it which, being made
of reinforced concrete and brick, couldn't be entirely burned. The district lor
miles along the Ginza was marked by many buildings similar to this one.

130 IMPROVEMENT ERA

was nothing left of over two- thirds of the once fair city, but ashes
and broken-down ruins. What it had taken men three hundred years
to build, fire destroyed in three days! It seems impossible, and yet
the facts are before our eyes! After all, what are the things of this
life worth anyway? Were it not for our hope in Christ, is there
anything in this life worth striving for? I fear, after seeing such
wholesale destruction of life and property, we are forced to say there
is not.

It is all over now! The former spirit of defiance has changed
to one of weeping. Tokyo has changed from the once proud
Metropolis of the Far East, to the city of Ruins and Dead! Her peo-
ple no longer boast of her wealth and beauty. Those who are left
walk the streets, searching for loved ones, searching for something
which might give them the wherewith to buy their food, or searching
in the midst of ruins for something, they know not what! The spirit
of sorrow permeates the entire population, as they go about their sad
task of locating and burying the dead.

We went out to see to what extent our field of labor had been
destroyed, and in our walk, (there was no other means of traveling)
we crossed the Sumida river into Monjo ward. It was in this vicinity,
near the Ryogoku station, in a small open place called Shifukusho,
that one of the saddest scenes that has ever been enacted in the history
of the world, took place! Honjo-ku, unlike most of the other resi-
dence districts of Tokyo, has no parks. The population is, or rather
was, extremely dense. At the outbreak of fire, the people fled in
every direction, but escape was impossible! They were trapped like
rats, and would eventually die in the flames, which by this time had
surrounded them! Then a hope sprang in their hearts! The police
were directing them to Shifukusho!

Into this small open place they crowded by the thousands! Surely
this was a haven of retreat! But alas, they were to be sadly dis-
appointed! Closer and closer closed the fire! It was coming, but
they would be spared! Parents huddled around their offspring in an
effort to protect them from the intense heat! It was terrible, but they
would have stood it perhaps, if cruel fate had not played them another
trick! They had carried with them their belongings! These caught
fire and together with the extreme heat charred them in their very
tracks! When we visited them a week later, their charred bodies hud-
dled together in small groups, told this awful tale in words more
powerful than man's. Think of it! Forty four thousand people
charred beyond recognition in one little place! The awfulness of it
cannot be fully comprehended even by those who have seen it, so I
fear you will not be able to, but you might try.

The stench was unbearable, while the sight was one which,
though I live to be a hundred, I will never fully erase from my
memory! We moved on, only to find more dead! Dead every-
where! The Sumida river seemed full, as the tide came in carrying

THRILLING EXPERIENCE IN TOKYO DISASTER ;' 131

them back up where rescue workers fished them out and piled them in
piles along the bank, where later soldiers cremated them with kerosene!
The horrible expression of agonizing pain upon the face of every one
told what a terrible death they suffered. We can never understand
it, for none have ever been through it and told us of its pain. All
we are able to do is to let our imagination run to the extreme, and
then it cannot fathom the depth of suffering those thousands under-
went.

Ruins and destruction faced us on every hand! Just as far as the
eye could carry you, nothing but ruins! We climbed the hill at Ueno
park, where thousands had sought refuge and had found it. From
here we could see out across the river to the east. Nothing but ruins!
Below us lay the Ueno station, now a heap of twisted iron and stone!
To the south, just as far as one could see, lay the ghastly ruins of
Manseibashi station and vicinity! To the north more ruins, and to
the west still more! It is impossible to calculate the number of lives
this one high tableland saved, but it must almost reach into the mil-
lions. The other large parks in the city which did similar duty were
Kudan, Hibiya and Shiba. It is a conceded fact that had Tokyo had
more of these spacious parks, the death list would not have reached
the high mark it did. However that is a problem for the future when
Tokyo once more becomes the pride of the entire nation.

Our duty now was to find the Saints and investigators. We had
been joined by the missionaries from the other conferences. President
Lloyd O. Ivie and Elder Vinal G. Mauss traveled from Sapporo to
Tokyo riding part of the way in freight cars, in order to find out
for sure just how we four who were in Tokyo at the time, had fared.
They were joined at Sendai by Elders Hicken and Holley. We were
joined later by Elders Robertson and Jensen of the Osaka conference.
It was a meeting of joy and gladness, when we saw the brethren come
in just one week to the day after the disaster. We had been unable
to send them word of any. kind, all telegraphic communications hav-
ing been cut off at the quake.

President Ivie called a meeting on Sunday and it was decided to
visit the Saints. We were paired off and sent out on our errands of
mercy to those Saints from whom we had received no word nor had
previously visited. Our search was rewarded in every case but one,
by finding the Saints safe and well. In this case, the house had been
burned and the sister had gone to the home of her father, which thing
we learned later.

Of all the Saints in the city of Tokyo, only one lost her home.
Not one was killed, in fact not one received even a scratch. So far
as we have been able to learn only one of our investigators lost his
home by fire, he and his little boy not being home. We have searched
the city over, and as yet we have our first one of our Saints or in-
vestigators to find dead.

This has been a testimony to me, that God does look after his

132 IMPROVEMENT ERA

people. That where people are assembled together in his name there
will his Spirit be also. That even in our weakness if we err, if we
repent thoroughly, we are forgiven. It has proved to me more force-
fully than any other thing ever did before, just how utterly futile
man's efforts are against the elements! It has shown me that the
things of this life are easily destroyed, and that if we have not hope
in a life after death, we have very little to look forward to. But there
is a life after death! If there is none, then how are we going to recon-
cile ourselves to the fact that over two hundred thousand people's
lives have been thus taken away from them before they were ready
to die? That 316,087 homes were destroyed, and 1,356,740 people
were made homeless in the recent fire.

My brethren and sisters, the signs of the times predict that the
advent of the Son of God is near at hand. Listen to the following:

"Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made free; entangle not
yourselves in sin, but let your hands be clean, until the Lord comes. For
not many days hence and the earth shall tremble and reel to and fro as a
drunken man; and the sun shall hide his face, and shall refuse to give light;
and the moon shall be bathed in blood; and the stars shall become exceed-
ingly angry, and shall cast themselves down as a fig that falleth from off a
fig-tree. And after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the
people. For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that
shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground
and shall not be able to stand. And also cometh the testimony of the voice
of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and
the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds.
And all things shall be in commotion ; and surely, men's hearts shall fail
them; for fear shall come upon all people." (D. £> C. 88:86-91.)

This prophecy has, at least in part, been fulfilled before our very
eyes! Can we stand and doubt more?

We must reap while the day lasts. We must keep our lamp
trimmed, for "no man knoweth the hour." Let us be up and doing.
God has spoken to us by the voice of earthquakes, thunderings, and by
tidal waves! He has warned us and all people that greater calamities
shall come if they do not turn from their ways of sin and wickedness.
The time is short, and there is much to do to prepare the nations for
the advent of our Lord.

In regard to the work here, I have great hope. I feel this has
been the turning point. I feel the people of this nation can see
wherein 'tis folly to trust in earthly things. I hope so, at least. I
hope that through this it will be easier to reach the hearts of the peo-
ple with the message of truth; for if not, all these lives have been
sacrificed in vain! Such can never be! In the great economy of the
Lord, it was necessary that all of these should die, in order that the
others might find themselves. We must do the rest. Let us go forth
rejoicing, and bear our message to them in plainness without fear and
without shame. For we can all say as Paul of old, "For I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto sal-
vation to every one that believeth." (Rom. 1:16.)

THRILLING EXPERIENCE IN TOKYO DISASTER \ 133

The missionaries in Tokyo at the time of the earthquake were:
Elders Ernest B. Woodward, Rulon C. Esplin, Milton B. Taylor, and
Lewis H. Moore.

Tokyo, Japan

Across the Years

The message that the angels sang,

On that clear night when heaven rang

Divinest music down to men,

Is on this Christmas sung again —

"Peace on earth, good will toward men."

A face looks down across the years,
And smiles a message, through its tears,
For every soul, for every need;
For every cause, if men will heed —
"Peace on earth, good will toward men."

Upon our day of doubt and strife;
On all the ills and griefs of life,
A face looks down across the years
And smiles a faith for all our fears —
"Peace on earth, good will toward men."

A heart beats down across the years
And bids the sorrowing dry their tears;
A voice rings down from on the Mount
And calls injustice to account —
"Peace on earth, good will toward men."

A love warms down the tide of time
To melt away all mammon's crime;
To chase the warrior's rule away,
And leave its law to reign alway —
"Peace on earth, good will toward men."

A truth rings down time's vagrant years
And shames the creeds of men today;
It brothers all, it mothers all;
Its law is love, and love is all! —
"Peace on earth, good will toward men."

Salt Lake City C. N. Lund

THE MOTHER OF THE GOLD STAR

By Mrs. Elizabeth Cannon Porter

The gold star mother sat in her shining kitchen. It was Christ-
mas eve and the little house was in perfect order, but from long habit
its mistress sat in this room even on festive occasions. As in most
farm houses, the life of the household revolved around the kitchen.
It was Mrs. James' laboratory when she evolved the dishes from recipes
handed down from a French Grandmother that made her the best cook
in the country. It was to this room that her young husband used to
bring his harness to mend in the evening, the year before he died.
Her boy, Ernest, sat on the floor, when a baby, in the patch of sun-
light that streamed through the south windows. Now, his man's body
lay in a grave in France.

Outside, the world lay under a mantle of fresh snow that
swathed it like a shroud. This added cheer to the light of the lamp
and the warmth of the fire indoors. Along the windows up under
the eaves stood potted red geraniums. The floor reminded one of the
advertisements of "spotless town." The kitchen range shone like an
ornament. The blue and white plates reflected their luster from the
cabinet. At the oak table, Mrs. James held open a book. It was the
"Doctrine and Covenants," the book of modern revelation.

A knock came at the door and she raised startled eyes to the
clock. It was after nine and as she made her way to the entrance she
wondered who could have come at such a time and on such a night.
She flung open the door and her neighbor, Joseph Dart stood revealed.

"You must excuse me, Mrs. James," he said as he stamped the
snow from his feet and entered the room, "for coming so late, but
I've been out tonight and I had something special that I wanted to say
to you."

Mrs. James looked enquiringly at him as she took his hat.

He sat down by the stove and cleared his throat.

"It's about our Danny. He had set his heart on going to the
bright lights of the city. His pals had gone and they kept telling him
how much easier it is to make a living in the city, and about the
dance halls and picture shows. They said he was a fool to stay here.
Not that our place has much to offer, but there is always plenty of
work. Dan had set his heart on going when you offered him your
fields to work and your equipment. We all know how well he did.
Now he has decided to stay with the farm and is making plans for
next year. You ought to hear him. The change in him is wonderful.
Somehow I feel that if he had drifted off it would have finished his
mother. She couldn't bear another disappointment. If she'd died,
what with the mortgage and all, it would have been the end with me."

THE MOTHER OF THE GOLD STAR 135

Mrs. Dart was a chronic invalid. She was disappointed in every-
thing, her marriage, her home, her husband, her children. She had
succumbed to it. People did not know whether it was a sick mind
acting on a body, or a sick body acting on her mind, but the result
was disastrous to the Dart household which was a poor place at best.

"Danny's work has been a good thing for me. So are the burst-
ing granaries good for the people," smiled Mrs. James.

'My wife feels grateful for Danny staying home and the bounti-
ful harvest, and all, and she knit you this as a slight token of her
appreciation." Mr. Dart held out a paper bundle.

His hostess cut the string and shook out a fluffy lavender and
white shawl. She hung it over a chair and exclaimed over its beauty.

"I don't see how Mrs. Dart can do such wonderful work when
she is sick. I appreciate such a lovely gift from one mother to an-
other. Tell Danny that I think that he has done splendidly. I don't
know of any one who could have done better in Ernest's place." Her
eyes misted with tears.

Long after her visitor had gone, the woman pondered while the
fire died down. Just as Ernest James had been at the head at school
and Danny Dart at the foot, so when the great war came the former
had been the first to enlist and the latter had waited for the last draft.
Her boy had always been so good and progressive that she had found
it necessary to refuse him few things. When America entered the con-
flict he begged his mother for her consent to go.

It was in vain that she pleaded.

"Son, you are all I've got."

"All the more reason, mother, why you should give your one
man to the cause," he answered blithely. "Mother, you wouldn't
want me a slacker?"

At last he had won out.

She remembered the last time she had seen him. He marched with
the troops through the streets of the city. She stood at the curb as
they passed. How her heart leaped when she caught sight of him!
How sober he looked; how well he carried his uniform; and how
young the boys all were! She found herself running, a tall aristo-
cratic looking woman in black, to try and catch another glimpse of
him. She had been caught in a jamb and had stopped to cry in a
doorway. She never saw him again.

There had been letters. One came after he was dead. The morn-
ing that she drew it out of the rural mail box she almost swooned in
the road. Then she had clutched it to her bosom, the wild hope
leaping in her heart that Ernest might after all be alive. But when
her trembling fingers tore it open she found it neither a refutation of
his death, nor a message from the spirit world, but the words of a
sick boy in a hospital behind the lines waiting for his leg to be
amputated.

Months afterward had come the cross of war from the govern-

136 IMPROVEMENT ERA

ment for "bravery in action." She put the metal disk on the ribbon
away with Ernest's baby pictures and a lock of his hair. It was one
of war's grim jokes that she never knew what the "act of bravery"
consisted of.

.Two of the precious letters lay in her book and she turned to
their worn pages.

Dearest Mother: — Well here we are in France at last. The boys are all
crazy to get to the front, though I guess the poor fellows up there are just
as anxious to get away. We haven't seen much of France's famous build-
ings nor fashionable ladies as we have been billeted through the country
districts. The people live in villages and go out some distance away to
farm their lands. This makes it more sociable for the people and does away
with the loneliness of the American farm house. The people have piles of
manure which they turn over with a pitchfork. The peasants have a passion
for their land and it is pitiable to see the devastation that has come upon it.
I saw a shell hole where there must have been an old fashioned garden. It
had petunias drooping over the edge as big as saucers, and pinks — well, you
could smell 'em a block off.

Our company has a real cook, not a mere can opener like some of the
other companies have. At one town he got some rabbits and made a stew;
I tell you it was fine after the bully beef. Do you remember the little
cottontail that you split and fried in butter for me that tasted just like
chicken? Our K. P. is sure fine at hustling fire wood which is often scarce,
for the chow. At one place he actually chopped up a bed. He said if he
didn't the Germans would, so we might as well have it. The French think
that the Americans come from a very rich and cold country, they demand so
much fire wood. The government has placed some of their century-old
forests at the disposal of the army of occupation. The natives keep warm
by wearing a great deal of clothing, one layer over another. That must
have been why Sarah Bernhardt was always wrapped up to her ears in. her
pictures. She must have felt cold.

One of the boys had a rather funny experience the other day. He went
to a farm house and asked for a drink of water. Water and milk are almost
the same in French. After he had waited an interminable time a girl ap-
peared with a glass of milk. She had run out, caught the cow, and milked
her!

Well, mother, I am anxious to know how you are. It will be a good
thing when all this waste is stopped and we men can get home and do our
work.

With best love, Ernest.

The other ran:

Mother Mine: — It is a long time since I heard from you. The mail is
irregular and I worry about you: I am writing this in a hospital back of the
lines. About two hundred of us were barracked in a building at St. Mihiel
when it was shelled. Some of the fellows were blown all to atoms; but
others hurt not at all. I got mine in the left leg. At first the surgeons
thought they could save it, but now it seems that the veins are torn. It
interferes with the circulation and they have got to take it off below the
knee. I know how you must feel, mother, but I guess that you will be
glad to get part of me back, rather than not at all. Only I won't be able to
run the farm so well.

Teddy Wymes is here near me. They took him out of the trenches
screaming with inflammatory rheumatism, three days before I left the last
time. Everything they said about the trenches is true — the rats, the mud,
the filth. It seems good to be in a bed again. But as I lie here I do not

THE MOTHER OF THE GOLD STAR 137

think of the horrible carnage of this war, which I fail to understand, but
I dream of the wind in the elm trees at home and your sweet face.

Your boy, Ernie.

He had died of shock on the operating table. The last word he
said under the ether had been "Mother." These few meager details
had been supplied by a nurse who knew how mothers set store by such
things. How gladly Mrs. James would have welcomed any portion of
her boy. How she would have loved it and nursed it back to life.
But she knew that it would have been a grievous cross to Ernest to
have gone through life a cripple, for he could not bear anything marred
or broken.

Now in the gray marble rotunda of the great state capitol, which
stood upon a hill, Ernest's gold star hung with a great many other
gold stars, on an immense flag. In the memorial grove where a tree
was planted for each man who had lost his life in the world war, a
horse chestnut tree bore a plate with the name "Ernest James." Mrs.
James dedicated a corner of her garden to her son. In it were only
blue flowers. Blue is the rarest color in nature, but Ernest had always
shown a predilection for it from the blue milk bowl of his babyhood
to the neckties of his youth. His mother thought that when the time
came to choose a wife that he would select a blue-eyed girl. So in his
garden she planted larkspur, baby-blue-eyes, bachelor-buttons, and for-
get-me-nots.

Folks wanted her to give up the farm, but she pleaded that she
was too old to be transplated, so she clung to her abode with its
memories. She chose to "carry on." So she tended her kitchen garden
and her white leghorn chickens and let out her big fields to Danny
Dart. She had watched them turn from green to gold. Her heart
sang with the whir of the threshing machine for she exulted that the
grain would go to feed the hungry. Wheat had ever been wrapped up
in the history of her people. They had been encouraged by their
leaders to till the soil. When the fabulous prices born of the exigencies
of war sent most of the nation's grain over seas, the Relief Society
poured out its stored up hoard, gathered by women, to re-seed the
earth.

Of all the seasons Mrs James loved autumn best. It was then
the earth yielded up its abundance. With housewifely skill she gath-
ered her harvest and stored it up against the cold of winter.

In her cellar in neat bins, along the wall, were the "roots," po-
tatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips and onions. There were also Pear-
maine apples and hubbard squash buried in wheat.

On her white-washed pantry walls hung bunches of herbs, sage,
savory thyme, parsley, and mint. There were also strings of dried
apples and vivid red sweet peppers, bags of hops and sacks of dried
peas and beans. There were salted string beans, pickles, covered with
horseradish leaves, and a stone crock of mince meat. Sugar-cured hams,
salted bacon, smoked dried beef and country sausage made one's mouth

138 IMPROVEMENT ERA

water. The high lights fell on rows of gorgeous bottled fruit, —
Oxheart and Black Tartarian cherries, raspberry jam, whole bunches
of grapes, half peaches floating in amber liquid, gingered pears and
mint apple jelly, containing all the concentrated fragrance of the
harvest.

Mrs. James' gift was house-keeping. As she kept up the exquisite
freshness of her home she reflected ironically that it was all wasted on
one lonely, old woman. Was it wasted? Some claim that the only
way to teach is by example. If that is true Mrs. James was a great
teacher in home economics.

The clock struck twelve. It was Christmas morning. The
woman shivered and closed her book. She picked up the shawl that
Danny's mother had knit and wrapped it around her shoulders. No
wonder that they were worried over Danny, for Danny's elder brother
had "gone to the dogs." She locked the door, picked up the light and
carried it into her bed room. From her mahogany dresser her son's
handsome eyes looked at her. She picked up the portrait.

"I thought that you died to save mankind, my Ernest, but it
seems that you also died to save Danny Dart."

She sighed, and kissed the pictured face.

DO YOU BELIEVE?

By Joseph S. Peery

On the street a man went up to another and asked: "Do you
believe?"

. "Yes; I believe," was the answer.

"I am glad you believe," remarked the man as he walked on.

A mighty fine thing to believe. Everything is in favor of be-
lieving. Goethe makes Mephistopheles, portraying Lucifer, to declare:
"I am the spirit that denies."

How much better it is to believe than to deny? To believe is
constructive. To deny is destructive.

The true believer has peace in this life, and gives out hope for
the life to come of eternal joy and progress. The denier has unrest
in this life and offers only desolation for the life to come.

Yes; we believe, and, believing, are thankful for the opportunity
of doing our bit in aiding God in his great work and glory "to bring
to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Pearl of Great
Price, Moses 1:39.)

ROOM FOR HIM AT THE INN
A Christmas Story

By Lucile Talmage Carlisle

Christmas eve, descending with its age-old glamor over the high-
ways of the glad of heart, does not halt when it comes on even such
bitter stretches as Gurnsey Street. By the jaunty sprig of holly in
the lapel of the legless man with the pencils, by the wilted cotton
trappings of the lean Santa, nursing numbed fingers beside his paste-
board chimney, one knew that Christ would be born that night.

Because it was Christmas eve, the man who stood on the corner
of Gurnsey Street was terrible to look at. Sorrow or loneliness or
even despair might have been pitied and overlooked, but the ugly
glare in his too-sharp eyes was none of these. It hinted craft and
cruelty and good will toward none — not even himself — and it made
his handsome, smartly-clad figure a sacrilege to that loveliest night of
the year.

This was just such a street as one might follow to find such a
man, had one been looking for him. Heavy doors, inset with ancient
stained glass panes and suggestive of dark and furtive rooms beyond,
presented apt background to his lounging figure with its shifting
hands.

Directly into the shaft of his gaze came a girl — the prettiest
figure that the street had seen all day. In the soft, cold twilight she
seemed all roses and gray furs and swift young smiles. Women came
seldom to Gurnsey Street — pretty women with roses, almost never.
She paused to drop a handful of chattering coins down the chimney
of the gaunt Santa Claus. Then she came on, and at last saw the
tall, sad young man, and smiled again. Just too late, he shifted his
eyes to the street, and turned broad, sullen shoulders to her passing.

He did not see the defiant up-flare of her chin or the swift clench-
ing of her lip — he saw only the small whiteness of her glove laid on
his arm, and the childish widening of her blue eyes, raised.

"Why, Ken, hello," she laughed up, "aren't you going to speak
to me, even? Merry Christmas!"

"Well, if it isn't Molly herself." He was suddenly suave and
warm of tone. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas — ah — "

His eyes, she thought, were like steel beads, sharp and depthless.
His cordiality was plainly feigned. Choosing to ignore the fact, she
invited, with a little laugh:

"Where are you going, Ken? Let me trot along."

His irritation covered itself nicely with cold politeness, but it
was not lost as he murmured, "Thanks, awfully, Mrs. Macbride, but —
that is your name now, isn't it?"

MO IMPROVEMENT ERA

She giggled. Her little irrepressible mirth drew from him a wry-
smile. "Yes, Macbride. My first name is Molly. Don't let a lot of
old ghosts make icebergs of us now, Ken. I have forgiven you —
utterly — as entirely as I should forgive any horrid little boy who
might have broken my dolls, years ago. But I never could forgive you
for passing me up, this Christmas eve, with only a haughty glare."

"You know I never got over it," he told her stubbornly, as one
who seeks to strengthen an old delusion by going over and over it.

"Well, neither did I," she replied practically. "One doesn't
when it is as intense as ours was. It has made me — more understand-
ing, I think. More able to laugh at — little things now. Let's stroll
around the corner at least, Ken. I don't like — those men — "

"Yes, by all means let's get off this street, in a hurry. By the
way, what's that husband of yours thinking, to let you out alone in
this part of town, child?"

"Oh, he's very busy. Doctors are, you know, at the awkward-
est hours. And I was lonely, so I came out by myself, hunting for
some poor soul whose Christmas I might brighten. And," she
laughed suddenly, "I reckon you are the 'poor soul,' Ken. I never
saw a sadder-looking face than yours was, just before I came along."

"No!" the man deprecated largely. "And just how do you plan
to brighten the day for me?"

"Let me see. First I'll take you home, and let you see an un-
believably wonderful Christmas tree. Then we'll decide. Here's my
car — the little blue one. You drive."

"But, Molly," he fumbled, "that's nice of you, of course, but
I've — made plans. Just going to catch a train, really — "

Her face fell. "Oh, Ken," she pleaded, two small fists under
her chin. It was a familiar gesture of disappointment that brought the
years back in a potent rush. "Important?"

Something of her old charm held. "Not too," he laughed gen-
erously. "I'll miss this one. No, you drive, Molly. I've grown
a bit reckless — Traffic — "

She looked for a tremor in his hand, on the door, and found it.

The ride home was successful only in that it brought them safely
to a stop before the spacious little Macbride bungalow, that Molly
had built, out of her heart. Conversation flagged as each, wrapped
in unwilling memories, stammered, laughed too often, and corrected
little phrases which were uttered innocently enough, but which
acquired, somehow, an annoying significance in the interchange.

There had been other rides through the dusk, those other days
in Ken Brady s proud little new Ford, when Molly s curls had brushed
his sleeve and her arm fluttered up, occasionally, to draw down his
erectly handsome head. Long months, suffused in the first, exquisite
dreams of young love. Promises, fragile as they were deathless, made
and reiterated All this until Ken, grown up too suddenly, had looked
aside from the charmed circle of Molly's quiet love, and discovered

ROOM FOR HIM AT THE INN 141

the insinuating, slant-eyed smile of the girl in his brokerage office,
who had ideas of going on the stage. Molly had grown a bit tame, of
late. Being in love had knocked all the surprises out of her.

Quarrels had followed; bitter, groundless quarrels with Molly,
but Ken had lacked that splendid strength by which men kill mor-
tally-wounded animals, to make the thing irrevocable. Always as-
suming the role of the aggrieved, he had begged for reconciliations,
only to plunge desperately into another break. Finally, with their
patched and tottering illusions still extant, he had formulated a new
contention, so insignificant as to cause disgust, and had, in a cow-
ardly letter, ended everything. Then he had slunk out of sight. That
was all. Until tonight, he had not seen her since.

The scent of the winter dusk, and the littleness of Molly beside
him, brought many things back. He would have avoided entering the
house, had he known just how.

But she led him cheerily inside, and disposed of his hat, herself.
The rooms were dim and dear and intimate. Molly unpinned her
roses in a gust of perfume.

She had brought him thus far by the witchery of her person-
ality. Now the guise altered. She was simply the pretty and a trifle
matronly Mrs. Macbride, gracious mistress of this warm little home,
bidding her guest welcome and Christmas cheer. She switched the room
into electric brilliance, and, turning, said casually, "Did you ever
see such a tree?"

She let him follow her into the white-tiled kitchen, and laughed
through their little meal of sandwiches, back on the hearth.

"How I do envy you all this," he mused, taking in the room
at a glance.

"Do you, Ken?" she queried. "Funny you've never tried getting
a home for yourself. I'm convinced that what you need most of all
is a nice little wife, and a grate fire of your own, It would — "

"No," he cut in, his eyes bead-like again. "A rover's life for
mine. Unless," he went on triflingly, "I could find me a little wife as
nice as Doctor Matthew Macbride's."

"Doctor Matthew Macbride," she assured him gravely, "wouldn't
know me as anything but a quiet little home body — doing silly, do-
mesticated things — adoring my child and shuddering at the thought
of two nights out in succession."

"No!" he said again, doubtingly. "You aren't letting marriage —
take all the pep out of you, are you? Don't do that, Molly, please."

"My dear boy, that's the glory of being married! Not wasting
time over things that don't count, being alive for the real things!"
she told him, and left him to think.

Presently they drifted into conversations of the older boys, but
their talk was flat and unmysterious now.

"Wouldn't it be fun, Ken, to see all the old friends of that year
at school? What ever happened to Jackson Bryce and to that awfully

142 IMPROVEMENT ERA

handsome boy in our history class? What was his name? Wait a
minute; I'll get my kodak album and show you his picture."

Together they flipped over the pages of the book she brought,
exclaiming over occasional faces and scenes.

"Look, here's old Professor Hall, the day of the candy pull.
This is Mother. Here's a picture of Marian Ward. Wasn't she beau-
tiful? Whatever became of her, do you know?"

"Yes, I do happen to know," he said, his hand holding the page.
"She was married — and separated. She married the wrong kind of a
fellow. When she lost her looks, she lost him, too."

"Some men are — cads," declared Molly, coming hotly to the
rescue.

"They are, all right. Are you happy, Molly?"

"Of course." Her voice rang confident, and defiant. "Isn't
everyone happy, who tries to be, with all her heart — or his?"

"No!" he challenged rudely. "I'm not!"

"Perhaps you have not tried for the real things, Ken, that make
for happiness. Have you? Tell me something about yourself. Can
you?"

"There's nothing. Life looks kind of rotten. That's all."

She strolled toward the hall and appeared to be listening intently
there for a long moment. When she returned, his face had sunk into
its grim, brooding lines.

Bobbie came in, led by a blue-and-white nurse, to hang up his
stocking. He was a fat, blond child, quite unlike his mother until
he smiled. It was not his smile, but the sturdy dimensions of his
little flanneled chest that captivated Kenneth Brady. The child was
shy at first, but he soon became master of the situation, romping on
and off Ken's knees, and searching in every available pocket for pennies.
At last he curled up with his little gleaming head against the man's
shoulder.

"You better go home to your little boy," he said solemnly.

"What if I haven't one, old man?" said Kenneth, curiously
husky.

"Well, why don't you ask Santa Claus to get you one? I bet
he would bring him to you, then."

"Hadn't thought of that, Bobbie. Perhaps I shall."

"Emily," Molly interposed, "please take Bobbie to bed now."
She followed them into the hall. After Bobbie had trudged, chat-
tering, up the stairway, she remained, and again seemed to be listen-
ing, anxiously.

"Maybe I should go now," murmured Ken, rising, still not quite
himself. "Will he be home soon?"
"Who?"
"The doctor."

She gazed at him for a curious instant. "Why no — no — ■"
"You look worried," he explained, crudely enough.

ROOM FOR HIM AT THE INN 143

"I am worried, I believe. It is about the case he is on. The
saddest case, Ken, you can imagine. Shall I tell you?"

"If it isn't too sad, yes."

"She's going to have a little child tonight — the night that Christ
was born. It is to be her first baby — and she is alone. Her husband
deserted her, when she needed him most — when she could not be all
that he demanded of her. Oh, Ken, isn't it pitiful?"

"He shouldn't tell you all this rot," growled the man. "Why
can't he protect you from it, at least?"

"Oh, but I want to know! If I could help, somehow! If only I
might do something to help that lonely little mother who is facing
death alone tonight, or that precious new little Christmas baby."

"I can't help thinking of that other Christmas — the first one.
Did it ever occur to you, how splendid it was of Joseph to stand by
the blessed Mother the way he did? How he loved and cared for her,
even though he could not call Him his Son! That's manhood, isn't
it?"

"Yes, Molly, but let's not talk about it so much, please."

"All right. I could not seem to shake it from my mind. If I
could somehow help! If I could find the husband, and bring him
back to her!"

"Bring him back? He ought to be killed!"

She laughed her cool, tender shred of a laugh. "That's what
Matthew says. We women are — forgiving, aren't we? And you
men are so harsh— so blind! He probably left her in one of her
spells of unhappiness that would be so inevitable to her — just then.
And he has probably been sorry, since. Of course he should come
back, and make right all the horrible wrongs, and make her happy,
and — I'm sniffling like a child. Where's my — excuse me — my hand-
kerchief— "

She fled up the stairs, leaving all her thoughts about him.

When she returned, scarlet about the eyes, yet curiously radiant,
she found Kenneth Brady getting furtively into his coat.

"Why — you aren't going away?"

"Isn't it time, Molly?" he asked, frantically pleasant.

"Not without saying goodbye. Not for a time, anyway. I'm
lonesome. Please stay."

He returned, disconcerted, to the living room. His face was set.

"Have you been thinking about my story, Ken?"

"No — no, I had forgotten it. But, now, about that girl, Molly
— you don't suppose she really would forgive him, do you, after all
that?"

"I am sure she would. She knows, as I know, that he was not
all bad at heart. He acted impulsively, on the wrong impulse. He
did not understand, perhaps, that all her old health and charm would
come back to her so soon. He did not begin to realize the glory in
store, of holding his son — as warm and strong as my little Bobbie —

144 IMPROVEMENT ERA

to his heart. He made a terrible mistake, and I think the case is the
same with most bad men in the world. They are led off by one mis-
take— one wrong — when circumstances seem to drive them to it; and
they go on then, along the same way, because they don't seem to
know how to make that first wrong right again. Their hearts want
to go back — but they don't know how!"

His breath rasped a few times before he answered, with some-
thing of a laugh, "Well, Molly, you give a fellow something to think
about. Your philosophy is — unique, isn't it? But I am afraid you
aren't quite right about everything you surmise. You are so per-
fectly happy yourself, so very ignorant of all the bad men you tell me
about, that your ideals are — well, sugar coated. Perhaps if you had
known a touch of suffering, ever — "

She laughed, silently. It was at things like this that his friend-
ship had taught her to laugh, so long ago. He seemed to understand
when she said:

"Ken, I know when I tell you she would forgive him tonight.
She needs him desperately. And he needs her!"
The clock ticked into the silence.

Over distances came the cool peal of a bell. Christmas had
dawned.

"He is born, Ken," said Molly, solemnly.

He roused, as if with a twinge. "I'll go now, Molly. Thanks,
much. You have saved me from — more than you know. I was a
lost soul when I saw you tonight. Now I am going home, home,
Molly!"

"Come with me first. Just follow me." She spoke quickly,
compellingly, and he followed almost without realizing it. "Ken,
the girl I told you of is here. She had no other place to go — and I
wanted her here. It was like preparing for the little Christ child, to
me. Matthew didn't want her to come. 'And there was no room for
them at the Inn' — isn't that a terrible, heart-breaking phrase? So she
is here.

"Ken, as you probably know, she is — Marian Ward. She needs
you so!"

They had reached a white door on the upper floor, which
opened noiselessly at their approach. The doctor, white-clad and
weary, moved out, frowning coldly as Molly gently pushed Ken to
the threshold.

"You should not have done it, Molly," the doctor pronounced
without warmth. "You are all but exhausted. I can see no occasion
for wearing yourself out this way — "

"Oh, Matthew, don't say that! It was hard! It was one of
the most difficult and unpleasant evenings I ever spent — but how well
worth it all was! Listen!"

A baby uttered its little scratchy wail.

Through the half-open door they could see two heads on the

ROOM FOR HIM AT THE INN 145

pillow, the one so pale and lovely, and they looked with a stealing
sense of awe. From the shaded light a golden circle found the pillow,
and rested there like a halo.
Oakland, Calif.

"We Stand for the Non-Use and Non-Sale of
Tobacco" — M. L A. Slogan

By Will H. Brown

Here is a significant fact: When the police send out descriptions of
criminals wanted, including mention of "peculiarities," they often say: "Cig-
arette smoker, nervous," etc. The two usually go together — smoking and
nervousness. A criminal who doesn't smoke would be a curiosity. In
reality, it is no "peculiarity." It is the thing to be expected.

Hudson Maxim, the inventor of high explosives, reviewing the dis-
astrous results of smoking by our soldiers during the great war, says: "I
wish and pray that it was possible for something to happen to the human
race, so as to make it impossible for them to get tobacco in any shape or
form, and if that were true, the efficiency of the great mass would increase
fifty per cent or more."

The San Francisco Examinee says: "Teachers in a high school of Win-
field, Kansas, where 341 boys attended, divided the boys into three groups —
smokers, occasional smokers, and non-smokers — and examined their scholar-
ship grades. The boys who smoked were 14.6 per cent of the school. They
got 4 per cent of the "excellents," and 32.9 per cent of the failures. Boys
who smoked occasionally were 29.6 per cent. They showed only 4 per
cent of the "excellents," and 37.5 per cent of the failures. The boys who
did not smoke at all were 55.8 per cent of the school. They won 92 per
cent of the "excellents" and only 29.5 per cent of the failures.

Fresno, Calif., now prohibits smoking on street cars, except in open
sections. Inasmuch as three of the lines run one-man center-entrance cars,
with no open sections, the action of the City Commission is quite a victory
for persons who believe in the right to breathe pure air.

That the growing sentiment against tobacco is becoming worldwide is
shown in the fact that at the great Anti-Alcoholic Congress at Copenhagen,
several special meetings were held to discuss means for combatting the use of
tobacco. One of the delegates contended that had Lord Carnavon been a
non-smoker he would have survived his illness in Egypt.

At the last general conference of the Wesleyan Methodist church the
following resolution was adopted by a 71 to 15 vote, to be submitted to the
district conferences before January 1, 1925: "We will not receive as mem-
bers into our churches, nor will we ordain or license to preach or exhort,
persons who use, cultivate, manufacture or sell tobacco." If the majority of
votes in the conferences is favorable, the action will be stated and declared to
be in effect at once.

August Vollmer, Los Angeles' new chief of police, wants officers who
can think, so has issued orders forbidding policemen from smoking, either
on street duty or in the offices of the police stations.

The Kent School for girls, at Summit, N. J., has had no dismissals for
misconduct or failures in examinations in its entire history of twenty-seven
years. A newspaper dispatch, telling of the school, begins thus: "Dis-
covered: A school for girls where the students do not smoke, do not
gossip," and so forth. The claim is made that the rule of conduct is the
Bible, with the emphasis on the 13th chapter of First Corinthians. One of
the officials of the school, commenting, says: "A girl who comes to Kent
school does not smoke, * * * for charity doth not behave itself
unseemly.' "
Oakland, Calif.

BOOK OF MORMON CHARACTERS

By J. M. Sjodahl

The readers of the Era are familiar with the characters of the
Book of Mormon, as they have been preserved in Church literature.

During the time between December, 1827, and the following
February, the Prophet Joseph, then living on his farm near Harmony,
Penn., copied some of the letters, or glyphs, on the plates, and trans-
lated a few of them by the aid of the sacred instrument provided for
that purpose. In February, 1828, his friend, Martin Harris, came
to Harmony, to visit Joseph, and the latter handed him two of the
specimens. Martin Harris then proceeded to New York and sub-
mitted them to the inspection of Prof. Charles Anthon, of the Colum-
bia College.* This incident of Church history is well known.

It will also be remembered that Prof. Anthon, in letters written
years afterwards to men searching for material for anti- "Mormon"
literature, acknowledged the visit of Martin Harris and the existence
of certain "characters," but declared them to be a hoax, and a
clumsy one at that. Thus, in 1841 he is said to have written a letter
to an Episcopalian minister in New Rochelle, near New York, in
which he informed the reverend gentleman, for publication, that he,
Anthon, after a brief examination of the paper presented felt con-
vinced that it was a fraud. That the "examination" must have been
exceedingly brief is evident from the fact that he went on to say that
"the characters were arranged in columns like the Chinese mode of
writing," and that "Greek, Hebrew, and all sorts of letters, more or
less distorted, either through unskilfulness or from actual design, were
intermingled," whereupon the whole ended in a rude representation of
the Mexican zodiac.

This has been widely circulated as Prof. Anthon's opinion,
based upon a "brief" — as the learned linguist admits — examination of
the characters brought to him by Martin Harris. It is hard to imagine
how even a brief examination could impress anybody but an ignoramus
with the idea that those lines now known as the Characters were Greek,
Hebrew, etc., letters arranged in columns, as in Chinese manuscripts,
and ending with a drawing of the Mexican zodiac. It is much easier
to believe that the Professor, when writing for the delectation of anti-
"Mormon" credulity, drew upon his own imagination. At all events
a brief examination of such a document is no examination at all, and
Prof. Anthon's opinion is, from a scientific point of view, valueless.

*At the Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City, there is a photo-
graphic reproduction of a print, which purports to be a facsimile of one of
the drawings made by the Prophet and submitted to Prof. Anthon by Martin
Harris. See also the illustration in the Improvement Era for April, this year.

BOOK OF MORMON CHARACTERS 147

Dr. Augustus Le Plongeon came to an entirely different conclu-
sion regarding the Book of Mormon characters.

I am fully aware that Le Plongeon is not accepted as an authority,
and that some of the theories and opinions he has advanced go much
farther than the facts adduced warrant; but I do not know that his
ability has ever been doubted, or that the value of his discoveries has
been questioned. And for that reason he certainly is entitled to a
hearing on a question of fact relating to the ancient inhabitants of
America.

In a letter to Elder D. M. McAllister, of Salt Lake City, dated
18 Sidney Place, Brooklyn, July 1, 1892, Dr. Le Plongeon made this
statement:

"I have carefully examined the characters on the plates from which the
Mormon book was translated. Although several resemble some on the
ancient monuments and in the Maya codices, still the characters of the writings
are in no way similar to that of the Maya inscriptions, or those on the
tablets of Palenque. It seems to me they bear more similitude to the Old
Phoenician. Still, I am free to confess that the following are found in the
Maya writings:

^ is? nj-UjOr HLj or' P, is ma (Egyptian- or ' Maya),
meaning "the land," "the country"; 0 (h) is ah, meaning
"the male," "the powerful." U, or j£^,ie t, symbol of
Maya tern, altar, and the Egyptian L ~S>^ This is the most
sig nificant. It is found in the .Maya book s,\£^ where it has
the meaning of "the lands of the west," that is, North and
South Americaand the lost (Land of Mu) Atlantis, indicatedry
the dot in the midst of the ocean, contained within the shores
of the western continent, from New Foundland to Cape St.Roque
in Brazil.

8)

In a note Dr. Plongeon adds that the character* Q/ is a
composite, which in Maya glyphs would mean Ah-tem, "he of the
altar," either God or the priest.

Dr. Plongeon and his gifted wife spent ten years, or more,
among the Mayas in Yucatan. They learned the language and studied
the people by living among them. They were very successful in their
research work.

148 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Dr. Plongeon was a friend of the late President John Taylor.
In one of his letters to Elder D. M. McAllister he says:

"Mr. John Taylor, the late president of the 'Mormon' Church, was a
friend of mine since 1852. We became acquainted in Europe, and since
then, from time to time, we have corresponded. His last letter to me is dated
a few months before his demise."

Who Would A-Conqucring Go

"When I a-conquering go," I vowed,
"I shall not heed the jeering crowd,
With purpose bold, and eyes ahead,
With shoulders firm, and kingly tread,
No voice can call me back, I know,
The day that I a-conquering go."

"Wills such as mine no man can turn,
When once the fires of conquest burn
Within my breast, as forth I stand
Unflinchingly to take command.
No restless thoughts my heart shall know
The day that I a-conquering go.

"But, for today, I love red wine,

And warm lips madly meeting mine;

I love the game, the laugh, the song,

To feast and play the whole night long, —

Such follies to the Past I'll throw

Tomorrow, when I conquering go."

In youth I sang thus boastfully:
"My passions cannot master me,
Though my todays are full of bliss, —
The sparkling wine and rapturous kiss
Belong to youth, and he must know
Them all, who would a-conquering go."

Now, all too late, I comprehend
The wisdom of my childhood friend, —
A gray old man who said to me:
"Ah, youth, could I but make you see
That he who would true valor show,
Must all his days a-conquering go."
St. George, Utah Mabel Jarvis

The Old Clock

Slowly move the dial hands

As the pendulum swings to and fro —

But of what avail is the rhythmic tick-tock

That marks off the time on the face of the clock?

In the ancient speech of ticks and tocks

Centuries old in the language of clocks —

Meaningless as a beetle's drone

In its never varying monotone;

Tiresome as throbbing and treading of feet

That on the pavement beat and beat.

One midnight when the zephyrs sighed
In the treetops by my door,

The clock's tick-tock

Had ceased its knock.
And its ancient sound was o'er,
For it changed from ticking its old refrain
To a new and orderly musical strain.
As it really began to talk
Like some one might speak who had entered the clock

While I was sleepy and weary: —

Perhaps by some fate

It became animate

With a spirit more useful and cheery!

For it said, o'er and o'er,

O'er and o'er and anon:

"Go on — go on — go on — go on!

Bid care begone — go on — go on!

Go on — go on — bid care begone!"

Far better became its escapements' rime

And the frequent stroke of its musical chime

While I thought of it as a friendly gnome

That here in the clock had made a home —

A friendly gnome, with a friendly face,

Animating the old clock case —

Ever counting the pulse of time

In rhythmical beats and the hour's full chime —
Ever singing the words I con —
"Go on — go on — go on — go on!
Bid care begone — go on — go on —
Go on — go on — bid care begone!"

Now oft in my dreams
In my fancy it seems
A murmuring glee
Half awakening me
In a symphony of melody,
Singing to me so cheerily
In a drowsy rhythm of restful tune
Its simple and oft repeated rune: —

Go on — go on — go on — go on!

150 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Over and over a melody in a rhythmical refrain,

Mingling my dreams

In the firelight gleams
With my thoughts' on-rushing train;
Singing ever till comes the dawn —

"Go on — go on — go on — go on!"

Singing cheerily o'er and o'er:

"Go on — go on — go on — go on!"

Under the merciless call of fate
When I'm weary — a weary — a weary,
Oft in my labors I hesitate,
And the moments seem long and dreary.
Then come the words of the new refrain,
Lifting away all work and strain;
And my tasks in a moment are pleasant again
With the monitor saying: "Go on — go on!
With the monitor saying: "Go on — go on!
"Go on — go on — go on — go on!"

And when night beckons me to my rest,
There's the song again of the unseen guest
Ever repeating the same request: —

"Go on — go on — go on — go on!
The guardian gnome with the kindly eye
Who all my future can here decry,
Looking far off to the by-and-by,
Who bids me ever go on and on —
Singing and saying: "Bid fear begone!
Go on — go on — go on — go on!"

When on my knee my grandchild rests
And asks for an evening story, —
The firelight on her auburn locks
A halo of shining glory, —
I tell her of the old hall clock,
How it used to say, 'Tick-tock — tick-tock!'
And how one night it changed its ways,
And now through minutes, hours, and days,
It says for me and every one,
When we have work that must be done:
"Time ne'er comes back when once 'tis gone!
Go on — go on — go on — go on!"

Joseph Longking Totvnser.d
Pay son, Utah

HOLGER DANSKE'S "BRILLER," OR "SPECS"

By Hugo D. E. Peterson, President of the Swedish Mission

When, recently, I read the announcement of the death of Patri-
arch Hans J. Christiansen, I was reminded of an incident which has
engraved itself on my memory from the time I first labored in
Scandinavia as editor of Nordstjarnan. He was then the president of
the Copenhagan conference.

A little north of Copenhagen, on "Norre Felleden," there were
two tiny lakes. They were located close to each other, round in
shape, one a little larger than the other, and for many generations
have been named "Holger Danske's Briller." ("Specs.") The largest
of these, until some years ago, for more than a generation served as
a baptismal font, in which our elders in the Copenhagen branch bap-
tized converts. Baptismal services were more often held on Sunday
nights, than otherwise, after the regular evening meeting. Some of
the singers, sometimes the whole choir, would accompany the elder
and convert, or converts, to the "Specs." This place of baptism was
used both winter and summer, and more baptisms were performed in
the winter time than at any other season. For many years there was
a family living in close proximity to this baptismal place, on whom
the elders would call for an axe to be used to open a sufficient hole
in the ice, sometimes a foot thick. At times this was done in the
afternoon in preparation for the services in the evening, but in ex-
tremely cold weather the hole was frequently frozen over before the
arrival of the baptismal party, so, the axe was carried along, and Jeft
at its hiding place on the return to the city, to be used again on the
next occasion.

One Sunday evening President Christiansen was to perform bap-
tismal services at the "Specs." The night was dark, but not cold.
Choir members were to accompany the party, but in the eagerness to
notify one another about the occurrence, it had come to the knowledge
of some strangers who decided to have some fun, as they thought.
The party, on going to a baptismal service, would always walk out
quietly; it was on the return to the city that the beautiful songs of
Zion would resound over the wide field and through the streets in
the outskirts of the city. On the evening here referred to, the party
had just arrived at the edge of the water, the ladies had surrounded
their soon-to-be sister, and President Christiansen was surrounded by
the brethren a little distance away, and was just about to prepare him-
self for going into the water with his candidate when, in the dark
distance he espied some moving, lighted objects approaching. Several
men soon appeared on the spot; two men smoking cigars, with a

152 IMPROVEMENT ERA

policeman walking between them, came up to President Christiansen
and the brethren. It was the lights from the cigars that had arrested
Brother Christiansen's attention, shining as they did, in the dark like
a couple of small lanterns on a rocking vessel.

"What's going on here?" demanded the policeman.

"We have come here to perform a baptism," replied Elder
Christiansen.

"A baptism? Out here! Why, such are performed in the
churches, not out in the open air, and in the dark!"

President Christiansen informed the policeman and his compan-
ions who they were and told them of our beliefs, our mode of bap-
tism, and why we baptized in this little body of water, explaining
that we did so for the same reason that John baptized in Enon, "be-
cause there was much water there." And after a little further con-
versation President Christiansen asked the officer if he had any ob-
jection to the ordinance being performed then and there.

"Not at all; go ahead with your baptism," he replied.

The strangers who came along with the policeman started
demonstrations, making boisterous and slurring remarks, which the
officer instantly stopped, demanding them to be quiet and respectful,
"while these people are performing their baptism." After that well
deserved rebuke, they behaved both during and after the services.
They had really brought a policeman along to keep an eye on them-
selves and make them act decently.

The "Specs" themselves have now vanished. They are dried
out, and only a small slough shows where the one "eye" once was
located, while the other has disappeared altogether. They have served
their purpose. We have no further use for them, since there is pro-
vision made for baptismal services in the L. D. S. chapel in Copen-
hagen. On our travel hither, we passed through Copenhagen, and
were pleasantly entertained there by President John S. Hansen, who,
with righteous pride, showed us the beautiful chapel our people own
there, and all its appointments, including the chaste, white baptismal
room with its font surrounded by a highly polished brass railing.
Stockholm, Sweden

Life

Well born, we to greatness aspire;

Well brought-up, we heed duty's call.
Well married is life's urgent desire;

Well dead is the crown of all.

Sandy, Utah Enoch Jorgensen

HELPS IN TEACHER-TRAINING

Written for the General Church Board of Education
By L. John Nuttall, Brigham Young University

Periods of Growth — Adolescence

(To accompany Lesson XXI, How We Learn, Teacher-Training
Text, 1923-24.)

"At this time when the youth first becomes capable of contributing to
the life of the race, and of actually doing something for the group to which
he belongs, his ambitions are aroused, and he dreams and plans for great
deeds and great honors. The desire for approval is strong, but there is also
a genuine impulse to self-sacrifice. Youths, in all ages, have been ready to
risk life, limb and reputation, not chiefly because they are ignorant and
rash, but because they have an instinctive tendency to disregard self and act
for others. Youths are then also for the first time genuinely selfish; since,
if a selfish act is done now, it may be in opposition to an altruistic impulse,
while before this it had involved only a choice between immediate and remote
pleasures for self. True, selfishness merges only when both the lower in-
dividualistic and the higher altruistic impulses are felt. The adolescent may
therefore be the most selfish or the most self-sacrificing of beings, and is often
each by turns."

From what source comes this^ idealistic unselfishness? Sex is function-
ing. Sex means the great responsibilities of parenthood and service to race
and human kind. Each adolescent feels these great impulses but desires most
to determine for himself or herself the form of expression they are to take.
Mother may enslave herself to daughter and the girl assume that her great
mission calls her into social life or school until mother's condition is taken
for granted. In another similar case, daughter refuses sociability and devotes
herself too much to home duties. Some boys plan to go to work; others to
go to school ; others assume the coming of inherited wealth and plan philan-
thropies. To teach social requirements, accepted standards of conduct, ap-
proved literature, to such young people without putting a dogmatic person-
ality in conflict with independent youth is one of the arts of good teaching.
Speaking negatively, one of our greatest failures comes when teachers try to
impose personal opinion on adolescents. The results generally are lack of
respect for the institution in which such teaching is done and an attitude of
defiance at leadership. To understand an adolescent one must understand the
conditions of any individual or institution during reorganization. Old ideas
are considered childish and are displaced in consciousness by a multitude of
new experiences. New instincts mature. Objects that were before attractive
are no longer so. The body that was so skillful before is now changed in
its size and proportions and needs to be mastered again. Social consciousness
begins and praise and attention are craved, but whenever the youth begins
to act, new bodily sensations pour into consciousness, and he becomes so
keenly aware of himself that he is shy and abashed. Most confusing of all
are the many powerful sensations accompanying sex. Teachers of adolescents
must help analyze this new mental complex, discover to the student gradually
his new powers, and the new significance the world has assumed, and teachers
should associate each of these elements with activity which is noble, pure and
helpful. Without this guidance the sensations from within take control of
consciousness, morbid self-analysis occurs and the negative expressions of
adolescence lead to sensual tendencies and acts of crime. Youth may clash at
times with the ideals of complete maturity, but youth is longing for help in

154 IMPROVEMENT ERA

analyzing his new life so that real adjustment to man's or woman's estate
may be good and helpful.

One of our recent psychologies lists for teachers the following elements
of adolescence. This discussion is based largely on the famous work of G.
Stanley Hall:

1. A heightened sense of self — youth is naturally bashful, self-con-
scious, sensitive.

2. An age of dreams — ambitions are often too vast for achievement
but lead the way to greatness. These need interpretation and criticism.

3. A social age — team play; pride in family, town, state and nation;
patriotism — all these are new feelings expressing themselves.

4. An age of restlessness — "Eternal seeking after new experiences, new
sensations, new excitements, new stimuli." These seem to satisfy the unin-
terpreted new impulses. Jane Addams calls this the "Quest for Adventure,"
and describes both wonderful experiences in morality and tragic endings in
crime. Let well selected books and lessons, M. I . A. hikes, parties, and va-
rious entertainments, dramatics, community fairs and celebrations furnish this
element rather than let youth find it alone in public dance halls, sensational
motion pictures, automobile riding, and unusual "thrillers" at resorts.

5. An age of moods. Expect him to shift from sociability to solitude;
from ecstacy to discouragement and despair, etc. ; understand him, help him,
don't use force or sarcasm.

6. An age of omnivorous reading — with modern education as effective
as it is, this grows rapidly in importance. From the days when boys hid
"Diamond Dick" in the haystack, and girls read novels clandestinely in the
kitchen or attic, we have progressed to an age of libraries and thousands of
books. Works of fiction are in good repute — the danger lies in permitting
pupils to develop an appetite for only romantic sex experiences. If prop-
erly introduced, books of travel, invention, scientific achievements, history
and biography may be equally satisfying.

7. An age of religious searching. This will be discussed in detail in
a later lesson.

8. An age of sexual interest. Few people can look back and recall
clearly just how the change took place, but all know that they became in-
terested in the opposite sex. Men admire girls, become conscious of their
beauty and their charms, eagerly try to assist them in acts of chivalry and
assume in this way a protective attitude. Girls respect and sympathize with
men and admire their achievements. Comradeship and friendship should in
this way exist previous to any passionate attraction between young people.
To do this the social mingling should be frequent and quite free but long
periods of close individual contact should be avoided. Instinct may over-
come ideal alone, but when the ideal is accompanied by habits of observance
of well established social rules, the young person is fairly safe. These habits
need to be formed before the sex function becomes too dominant. Girls
should get used to adult companionship so that a chaperone later is not a
reflection on their ability to control themselves. Boys need to meet with
men, accompany them, have men accepted as companions so that regulation
later is not so repulsive. This attraction of the sexes is the most beautiful
and constructive tendency in all life. Out of it grows our entire civilization.
Its significance needs to be taught, but an extreme bluntness destroys often
the needed modesty which nature has given as a safeguard against mistake.
Individual courtship in later adolescence is the natural outgrowth of this
happy sociable mingling of boys and girls. It will come without urging
and if accompanied by proper vocational ambition and ideals of civic re-
sponsibilities in home making will not be a source of worry or sorrow on
the part of parents and teachers.

9. An age of great plasticity of nervous tissue. — Subject to all the
influences around him, impressed from all sides, the habits or attitudes of
life of the adolescent are generally quite permanently formed. It is the age

HELPS IN TEACHER-TRAINING 155

of effective teaching especially when this is done as a process of thinking
rather than as a process of imposed standards and authoritative decrees.

To these descriptive phrases should be added another. Adolescence is
an age of vocational choice, and aggressive home-building tendencies. This
is partly an expression of sex. It is partly an expression of the attitude of
service. But it is also a separate tendency toward parenthood. Space will
not permit a detailed discussion of the use of this tendency. Sometimes it
is depended on entirely before it fully appears and the young person becomes
disgusted. Sometimes it is ignored and parents continue a patronizing atti-
tude toward the dependent child who soon becomes restless. Sometimes
teachers use it successfully as a motive for moral self-control. Economic
success should always be presented to young people as a means of successful
parenthood and not as an ultimate goal.

All of the above mental characteristics accompany the physical changes
described in the outlines. They dominate all mental processes. Imagination
deals with ambitions, day dreams, romance, adventure, and invention. Con-
structive imagination must replace the romantic gradually. Thought is
expressed in intellectual games, independent opinions, individual differences
in interests and conclusions, choice of language, and expressed purposes in.
what is done and often shown in the great difficulty experienced in reaching
decisions. Play is co-operative and social. Appreciation turns to art, music
and poetry. Rhythmic activity and dancing are natural and liked. Interest
attaches itself naturally to matters connected with sex attraction and adult
activities. Similarity to adults but independence of actions seems to be
desired.

Although adolescence is the period of greatest moral danger and of
very marked health crises, yet it is also the most constructive period of life.
Teachers should strive to point out its possibilities, stimulate good activities,
and hold clearly in view the attainable standards of real manhood, and of real
religion, rather than tend to repress, point out penalties, and call attention to
the negative possibilities.

Home

It seems so peaceful here at home,

When the hard day's work is through —
We choose a book or magazine,

And read for an hour or two;
It seems so cheerful, when at night

We gather 'round the fire —
Then comes the jokes, we laugh and jest,

Sometimes, we have a family choir.

We tell our stories, troubles too!

Our home life is our best.
So, when we're up against the blues,

In some hard task in life,
We try to bring our courage up,

To clear away the strife.

A home is just the best thing yet —

With parents, folks and friends,
A place of refuge — yes, a wall

Where every trial ends!
Monroe, Utah Weston Nordgran

THE GREAT DRAMA OF LIFE

By A. Ray Olpin, of the Brigham Young University

It is often more convenient to learn of the original through
study and analysis of a duplicate or imitation.

Not everyone is blessed with the opportunity and means to visit
the galleries of the world's masterpieces of art. So people learn of
them by the study of copies.

The comparative topography and general outlines of the nations
of the world are better understood through the study of scale charts,
maps and models.

So also is the great Drama of Life, the masterpiece of God, more
conveniently studied by means of the mere perspective, diminutive
copy, the drama of the stage.

All dramas should be patterned after the original plan made by
God. The modern theatrical stage should be a miniature of the great
design of the Creator, and the themes enacted thereon condensed forms
of the great prototype — the Drama of Life.

The earth, God's footstool, is the stage on which the actors per-
form. Humanity plays the leading roles, aptly responding to the effi-
cient coaching of the great Author.

The Drama is divided into acts or dispensations, the purpose of
which is the fulfilment of some definite aim leading up to the cul-
mination of the purpose of the whole.

These acts are interrelated and progressive, one introducing an-
other. With the passing of each the plot develops and deepens. Each
seems to involve a situation calling for solution.

Much is left to be consummated in the final act. All former
scenes lead up to it.

Then the announcement is duly made and the curtain rises on the
concluding scene. Action is intense and rapid. The happenings revert
back to former acts, and the mysteries of the plot are unravelled in
quick succession. Startling events and unlooked for results of pre-
vious epochs characterize this period.

This act, in the great Drama of Life, is the Dispensation of the
Fulness of Times. It is the beginning of the end. After its termina-
tion the stage will be reset, the same characters will appear in differ-
ent roles and a new performance will be ushered in.

The renewed earth in its paradisaical glory will be the setting
for the new production. Humanity, clothed in the robes of the resur-
rected, will proceed to interpret a new, more advanced and perfected
plot.

Provo, Utah

LIFE'S VISIONS AND PURPOSES

A Study for the Advanced Senior Class, M. I. A., 1923-24

By President Emeritus George H. Brimhall, and Dean
Harrison V. Hoyt of the Brigham Young University

Lesson X — Physical Fitness

A. Questions to be Answered by Members. 1 5 minutes.

1. Discuss health as a state of freedom from disease and of fullness of energy,
and laziness as a form of physical unfitness. 2 minutes.

2. Under what circumstances is it sinful to be ill or physically unfit? 2
minutes.

3. In which cases did Jesus treat physical unfitness as states of sinfulness?
2 minutes.

4. How does eating, when in a state of mental strain, affect one's physical
fitness? 2 minutes.

5. Why do doctors recommend the drinking of a glass of water the first
thing in the morning, as a means of keeping one physically fit? 2 minutes.

6. Show the physical fitness value of asking the blessing at meal times?

2 minutes.

7. Discuss auto-intoxication, showing how it interferes with physical fitness.

3 minutes.

B. Theme for Teacher's Talk. 15 minutes.

a. Nature will carry the physical fitness of the parents over to the chil-
dren to the third and fourth generation. 15 minutes.

b. Standards of Physical Fitness.

C. Topic for Class Discussion. 10 minutes.

The spread of whooping-cough, measles, and mumps is preventable; and their
prevalence indicates a community carelessness paid for by the unnecessary death
of many children who have a right to live.

D. Assignment of Next Lesson.

E. Social Period. Activities.

F. Some Subject Matter to Aid in Preparation.

Physical fitness means theologically a condition of the body that
will permit the spirit to perform its mission in the mortal estate. It
means sociologically, a state or condition of the body that will not
endanger the safety or comfort of others. It means industrially a
condition of body that will ensure the doing of the work attempted or
assigned.

Milton's blindness did not unfit him as a writer of Paradise Lost.
but it made him unfit for many other things. Vocations should be
chosen with a view of complying with the law of "The eternal fitness
of things." No one would harness a race horse to a plow and expect
good work.

Physical fitness, for joyous existence, requires freedom from dis-
ease and a desire to be doing things. Laziness, whether habitual or
natural, is a symptom of physical unfitness. The constitutionally tired
person is always more or less ill.

No one is physically fit for society who has any ailment which
may be "caught."

If the measles germ could be seen, by the naked eye; if we were
forced to wear powerful magnifying glasses when whooping-cough
microbes are brought within reach of children, we would be so terrified

THE GREAT DRAMA OF LIFE

By A. Ray Olpin, of the Brigham Young University

It is often more convenient to learn of the original through
study and analysis of a duplicate or imitation.

Not everyone is blessed with the opportunity and means to visit
the galleries of the world's masterpieces of art. So people learn of
them by the study of copies.

The comparative topography and general outlines of the nations
of the world are better understood through the study of scale charts,
maps and models.

So also is the great Drama of Life, the masterpiece of God, more
conveniently studied by means of the mere perspective, diminutive
copy, the drama of the stage.

All dramas should be patterned after the original plan made by
God. The modern theatrical stage should be a miniature of the great
design of the Creator, and the themes enacted thereon condensed forms
of the great prototype — the Drama of Life.

The earth, God's footstool, is the stage on which the actors per-
form. Humanity plays the leading roles, aptly responding to the effi-
cient coaching of the great Author.

The Drama is divided into acts or dispensations, the purpose of
which is the fulfilment of some definite aim leading up to the cul-
mination of the purpose of the whole.

These acts are interrelated and progressive, one introducing an-
other. With the passing of each the plot develops and deepens. Each
seems to involve a situation calling for solution.

Much is left to be consummated in the final act. All former
scenes lead up to it.

Then the announcement is duly made and the curtain rises on the
concluding scene. Action is intense and rapid. The happenings revert
back to former acts, and the mysteries of the plot are unravelled in
quick succession. Startling events and unlooked for results of pre-
vious epochs characterize this period.

This act, in the great Drama of Life, is the Dispensation of the
Fulness of Times. It is the beginning of the end. After its termina-
tion the stage will be reset, the same characters will appear in differ-
ent roles and a new performance will be ushered in.

The renewed earth in its paradisaical glory will be the setting
for the new production. Humanity, clothed in the robes of the resur-
rected, will proceed to interpret a new, more advanced and perfected
plot.

Provo, Utah

LIFE'S VISIONS AND PURPOSES

A Study for the Advanced Senior Class, M. I. A., 1923-24

By President Emeritus George H. Brimhall, and Dean
Harrison V. Hoyt of the Brigham Young University

Lesson X — Physical Fitness

A. Questions to be Answered by Members. 15 minutes.

1. Discuss health as a state of freedom from disease and of fullness of energy.
and laziness as a form of physical unfitness. 2 minutes.

2. Under what circumstances is it sinful to be ill or physically unfit? 2
minutes.

3. In which cases did Jesus treat physical unfitness as states of sinfulness?
2 minutes.

4. How does eating, when in a state of mental strain, affect one's physical
fitness? 2 minutes.

5. Why do doctors recommend the drinking of a glass of water the first
thing in the morning, as a means of keeping one physically fit? 2 minutes.

6. Show the physical fitness value of asking the blessing at meal times?

2 minutes.

7. Discuss auto-intoxication, showing how it interferes with physical fitness.

3 minutes.

B. Theme for Teacher's Talk. 15 minutes.

a. Nature will carry the physical fitness of the parents over to the chil-
dren to the third and fourth generation. 15 minutes.

b. Standards of Physical Fitness.

C. Topic for Class Discussion. 10 minutes.

The spread of whooping-cough, measles, and mumps is preventable; and their
prevalence indicates a community carelessness paid for by the unnecessary death
of many children who have a right to live.

D. Assignment of Next Lesson.

E. Social Period. Activities.

F. Some Subject Matter to Aid in Preparation.

Physical fitness means theologically a condition of the body that
will permit the spirit to perform its mission in the mortal estate. It
means sociologically, a state or condition of the body that will not
endanger the safety or comfort of others. It means industrially a
condition of body that will ensure the doing of the work attempted or
assigned.

Milton's blindness did not unfit him as a writer of Paradise Lost,
but it made him unfit for many other things. Vocations should be
chosen with a view of complying with the law of "The eternal fitness
of things." No one would harness a race horse to a plow and expect
good work.

Physical fitness, for joyous existence, requires freedom from dis-
ease and a desire to be doing things. Laziness, whether habitual or
natural, is a symptom of physical unfitness. The constitutionally tired
person is always more or less ill.

No one is physically fit for society who has any ailment which
may be "caught."

If the measles germ could be seen, by the naked eye; if we were
forced to wear powerful magnifying glasses when whooping-cough
microbes are brought within reach of children, we would be so terrified

i§g IMPROVEMENT ERA

that the person who was careless about quarantine regulations would
be listed as guilty of criminal carelessness. These germs are worse than
wolves; more dangerous than rattlesnakes; because their approach is not
accompanied by any sort of warning.

There can be no general individual physical fitness without com-
munity physical fitness.

It is a sin to be carelessly sick in the midst of opportunities 10
keep well. We are told that blessings under the laws of heaven are ob-
tainable only through obedience to law, and the greatest earth-blessing
is health. Jesus made sin and disease synonymous when he said to the
sick man, "thy sins be forgiven thee."

Our mental states have much to do with our physical fitness.
Fear, anger, anxiety, in fact all of the negative emotions, handicap the
physical organs in the performance of their functions. The meal time
should be as free from agitation and as full of comfort and good cheer
as possible. The custom of "asking a blessing" has an intrinsic physi-
cal-fitness value. It tends to produce a spiritual atmosphere conducive
to a poise of physical ease. When Jesus gave thanks at the seaside
dinner, where thousands were served, he not only taught gratitude to
God, but he applied a law of health.

An eminent twentieth century "medicine man" (M. D.) re-
marked, "Their name is legion who are slowly but surely dying from
dosing when a glass of cold water, first thing in the morning, would
give them new life."

Auto-intoxication — a kind of self drunkenness, is indulged in by
all persons who overwork. The Sabbath day observance has a physical
fitness side that cannot be ignored without working an injury to the
individual and a deterioration of the race. Recently an eminent lec-
turer spoke on the theme of postponing one's funeral, and among other
splendid suggestions he pointed out the consistency of treating our
bodies by having them over-hauled as if they were as valuable as auto-
mobiles. A physical examination is a sort of stock taking of our physi-
cal capital. It is too often made, however, with a view of finding out
what we have that we want to get rid of rather than what we have
that we want to keep. The custom of going to the examiner to find
out how well we are rather than how ill we are would be a good one.

No little interest is being taken in the fixing of a standard of
physical fitness for marriage. The idea is gaining ground that certifi-
cates of health should accompany, or be made a part of, a marriage
license. Such a measure would be in keeping with the theory that civ-
ilization depends on a practical interest in the unborn.

Great minds are having visions of a "super-man," and the best
of mankind is full of purpose concerning an increase of physical fitness.
Science is seen helping religion in the fulfilment of the Divine declara-
tion, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold." (Isaiah 13:
12.) High grade manhood is even today more precious than gold.
Physical manhood, intellectual manhood, spiritual manhood.

Lesson XI — Spiritual Strength
A. Questions and Problems for Members.

1. Give what you think is the best illustration of what spiritual strength is.
1 minute.

2. Why are miracles never performed by an infidel? 1 minute.

3. Show the impossibility of spiritual power being exercised by an atheist.
1 minute.

4. Discuss this proposition: A spiritual gift makes a person more than him-
self. Illustrate. 2 minutes.

LIFE'S VISIONS AND PURPOSES 159

i

5. Compare the conversion of Peter, who believed in Jesus, with the con-
version of Saul, who did not believe in Jesus as the Christ. 3 minutes.

6. Show that all spiritual strength is a gift from God, (a) the direct, (b)
the indirect. 2 minutes.

7. Which is of most daily concern to us, the spiritual gifts or spiritual
growth? 1 minute.

8. Quote and give reference to the scripture that gives us information con-
cerning the development of Jesus from his infancy to twelve years of age,
and account for his ability to astonish the theologians in the temple where
his mother found him. 2 minutes.

9. What is a life vision, a life's purpose? Illustrate. 1 minute.
10. Name from memory the seven "keeps" in this lesson. 1 minute.

B. Teacher's Prepared Talk on Doctrine and Covenants 3:3-4. 15 minutes.

C. Class discussion. 10 minutes.

D. Assignment and Work for next Lesson. 5 minutes.

E. Social Unit Period. 15-30 minutes.

F. Some Subject Matter, to Aid in Preparation.

1 . What Spiritual Strength Is. Spiritual strength is that strength
which comes from the Lord as special spiritual gifts, or through
spiritual activity. It is an addition to the human self. It makes
the physical self and the intellectual self more than themselves. It
was the spiritual reinforcement of David's physical strength that
made him stronger than a lion and the victor in a duel with a
giant. David himself testifies to the reinforcement of his natural
strength and accuracy of aim. (1 Samuel 17:37, 46.) It was
spiritual reinforcement that carried the intellectual of Joseph over
the difficulty that had baffled the wise men of Egypt. He
acknowledges his necessity for spiritual strength by saying to the
king, "IT IS NOT IN ME." (Gen. 41:15.) A study of hymn
number 256, beginning, "Daniel's wisdom may I know," will be
helpful in extending illustrations of spiritual strength.

2. Three Types of Spiritual Strength.

(a) The Direct, or Special Gift Type. Sometimes referred to as
the gifts of the Holy Ghost; gifts of the Spirit. See 1 Cor. 12:
4-11.

(b) The Spiritual Growth Type. This type of spiritual strength
comes from spiritual environment, spiritual companionship, spirit-
ual study, and more than all, from spiritual activity or works.
It becomes a permanent part of one's spiritual character. It is at
once a gift from God and an acquisition of man. It is the result
of the generosity of God and the fidelity of man.

Information concerning the life of Jesus, from the time he
was blessed in the temple as an infant to the time of his discussing
doctrine with the theologians in the temple, at twelve years of age,
is limited to what is recorded in Luke 2:40-41. Brief as is this
record, it is strikingly important. The sentence, "And the Child
grew and waxed strong in spirit," reveals what would take pages
to describe. His was the ideal life; and of that ideal life the
growth of spritual strength is placed as a concomitant of, not
as a pre-requisite of, wisdom and the grace of God.

(c) The Unrecognized, or Sub-conscious Type. This type of
spiritual strength is possessed by most people most of the time. It
is that type referred to in the scripture, "There is a spirit in man

and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding."
Columbus was inspired, though he may not have recognized that
he was being wrought upon by the Spirit of the Lord. The pil-
grims and the patriots possessed this type of spiritual strength for

160 IMPROVEMENT ERA

i

they were "wrought upon by the Spirit of the Lord." (Book of
Mormon 1 Nephi 30:12.) The framers of our constitution were
possessors of this type of spiritual strength. (D. 8C. 101:8CM
Although Morse acknowledged the power of God in assisting him
to make the lightning speak, it is questionable as to whether he was
conscious of the presence of the inspiration of the Almighty, as
such, during his experiments. The first message sent over the
wire, "What hath God wrought?" was an acknowledgment of God
in results.
3. The Condition for Spiritual Strength.

(a) Confidence in its Source. No one ever heard of an infidel
performing a miracle in the name of Christ, or of an atheist show-
ing superhuman power. Persons who find God without faith in
him are those who are being brought to trial. "It is a dreadful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31) :
but it is a glorious thing to share the strength of the living God.
The first condition of this sharing is faith, without which, God
cannot be effectively drawn upon. "Without faith it is impossible
to please God."

(b) Obedience. Disobedience is a condition from which spirit-
ual strength withdraws. Spiritual strength can no more remain
with the neglect of spiritual duties, or the violation of spiritual law
than physical strength can continue where there is poison or ab-
sence of exercise. A spiritual gift neglected soon begins to vanish.

Seven Suggestions for Becoming and Keeping Spiritually Strong.

1. Keep clean, in person, thought, and action.

2. Keep up correspondence with the Lord.

3. Keep the Word of Wisdom.

4. Keep the Lord's store house ledger account honestly balanced.

5. Keep on the Lord's side in every controversy.

6. Keep a life vision of being spiritually strong.

7. Keep full of high spiritual purpose.

Lesson XII — Individual Estimates of the Course, Social, Intellectual
and Spiritual

A. Questions to be answered by members.

1. How have you enjoyed the class?

2. What particular phase or part of the work has been of most value to you?

3. What suggestions have you to make concerning the class work?

4. What subject would you like to take up for the next year's course?

B. Teachers' expression concerning the class work and the course for next

year.

C. Assignment of next lesson. Preparation.

D. Social unit period.

Note: Kindly send to the Improvement Era or Young Woman's
Journal, the name of the subject that most of the members of the class favor
for our next year's course.

"We appreciate, the Improvement Era in these distant, scattered islands
and look forward to the steamer that brings us a bundle of them. Our
elders would be lost without them. After reading the letters from loved
ones in Zion their next demand is for the Era." — Mark V. Coombs, Presi-
dent Tongan Mission.

CHURCH MUSIC COMMITTEE

Lesson III — Practices and Rehearsals

By Edward P. Kimball

"There is no royal road to choir singing, any more than to other things. A
first rate trainer will produce a first rate choir; but only if he has sufficient time in
which to teach them. Good singing involves steady and constant work, and those
who are unable, or unwilling, to give this can never hope for the best results. In
no form of activity can efficiency be attained without regular application, but in
none less than in singing. The watchword should be 'hard work.' " — A. Madeley
Richardson.

The learning of music, in one regard, is like physical culture — if one
is to profit from it, practice must be engaged in regularly. One cannot
"cram" in gymnasium work; it is the regular periods of floor work which
build the body. The work cannot be neglected for a space, and then the
good to the body made up by longer work at one session. So with the
practice of music — no amount of extra time, in one session, can make up for
a lapse of practices. It is the daily recurrence of the practice that develops the
mind and muscles.

One of the first requisites for a good choir is a regular, set time for
rehearsal. In most wards, this time has been named by the presiding author-
ities. When once set, it should be rigidly adhered to, and the chorister has
the right to insist that nothing shall interfere with it. It should be at a
time when it is the most convenient for the greatest number, and when there
is least probability of distracting members' attention from choir work. No
choir can hope to succeed, if the time for practice is changed about to suit
every arising contingency. Being among the most important in the life of
the ward, its work must be given every advantage with the least possible
interference.

In practices, punctuality and order are of great importance, and required
both of singers and conductor. Promptness and precision throughout the re-
hearsal are points to remember. No moment of time should be lost; as few
words as possible spoken, and these always to the point. The singers have
come out to sing — not to be lectured to. From start to finish the mind
should be fixed upon the work in hand and not allowed to wander. Time
is valuable, and many attend rehearsal at a considerable sacrifice of their
time.

Each chorister must plan his rehearsal as best suits these circumstances.
The most profitable rehearsal ought to last about one hour and thirty min-
utes. Mr. F. W. Wodell, director of the Peoples' Choral Union, of Boston,
divides the time as follows :

Drill in voice-culture and singing 15 minutes

Hymns or simple anthems already in rehearsal 15 minutes

Taking up new music 30 minutes

Rest 1 0 minutes

Perfecting one or more numbers _ 20 minutes

The value of this plan lies in the fact that definite objectives are
set, and every division has its time. Nothing is neglected by non-preparation
as to time allotment. Mr. Wodell adds to this plan:

'The time allotted for voice-culture is likely to be as fruitful in good resjlts
as any portion of the rehearsal session. * * * At least one number should
be perfected — that is, thoroughly prepared for performance, at each rehearsal. Thus
is a genuine repertoire accumulated. Some choirs have many selections partia'ly
learned, but practically no one piece thoroughly prepared."

] 62 IMPROVEMENT ERA

It might be well to consider some suggestions on how to use the time
of each division most profitably. A review of lesson 1 is urged, in order
to keep clearly before the choristers the main functions of a choir. The
chorister must prepare his work in advance, and have in mind a well defined
program of procedure. In the practice of hymn singing, it is well to con-
sider the character of the hymn: Is it to furnish atmosphere? Is it a
prayer? Is it didactic? The drill then should be directed towards:

(1) A study of the words, (2) Tempo, power, tone quality, (3) Enuncia-
tion and articulation, (4) Dignified rendition, thoroughly in keeping with the song
and the service.

Means should also be practiced to lead the congregation in songs, giv-
ing attention to correcting faults in the congregation, such as lagging, etc.

In taking up new music the chorister should remember that singers
learn quickest when they understand best. Therefore, he must freely analyze
the words; have the singers read them, in order to get the content, thought,
and emotion. It is a good plan to have the four parts played slower than
they are to be sung, requiring each division of the choir to follow with the
eye, silently. The director should point out the rhythmic and melodic ele-
ments of the selection, and explain the tonalities (keys) and harmonies. If
singers understand the keys through which they are led, they learn much
more readily than where they are left to find tones without establishing their
relationship to other tones, merely trying to locate them according to their
position in the staff. Unusual and difficult passages should be practiced
slowly, each progression being mastered as it comes. Some find it ad-
vantageous to do this on "a," then with words after it is firmly fixed in the
mind.

In drilling the parts separately, it is well to have the strongest melodic
part sing first, to provide the most natural agency for establishing a relation-
ship of other parts. If this be in the soprano, then the strongest related part
will be the bass, and this should be taken up next. The alto may now be
added, and then the tenor, as these parts supply the tones which every ear
feels are lacking when only soprano and bass sing. The important point is
to provide the strongest lead, then to establish the other parts naturally, if
possible in their relationship to this.

When the selection has been read thus, it is well to sing it through
without stops, and then lay it aside for future perfecting. Mistakes in
rhythm, intonation, and interval must be corrected completely at once. There
may be many ways of taking up new music, but the chorister must exert
himself to having the music learned in the shortest time, correctly and thor-
oughly. It is wise to stand to rehearse music that is to be sung standing,
and vice versa. The manner and time for rising and sitting should be prac-
ticed, so that no haphazard shall take place before the congregation. For
giving a choir confidence, unaccompanied singing is unequalled. No com-
position is thoroughly mastered until it can be sung correctly — tone, in-
tonation, and expression — without instrumental accompaniment. Perfecting
music that has been in rehearsal means that it must be note perfect, and then
finished, regarding precision, phrasing, shading, tone, color, enunciation —
all of which make up what is called an artistic performance.

Lessons on voice culture, etc., will follow in subsequent issues:

Discussion for Union Meeting: —

1. Why is it advantageous to have a regular time for practice?

2. What should be the conduct of the chorister in rehearsal?

3. Discuss the advantages of a plan such as the one suggested for rehearsal.

4. How would you proceed in teaching a new composition?

5. What constitutes an "artistic performance?"

Editors ^Table

Thanksgiving Calls for Help

Recognizing, with thankful hearts the bounteous blessings that
our people enjoy, in their mountain homes, the First Presidency of the
Church, call attention to the hunger cry of children and the suffering
Saints in Europe, in the following appeals which we have no doubt
will find ready and quick response:

Notice

To the Presidents of Stakes and Bishops of Wards in all the Stakes
of Zion:

Our people have been bounteously blessed during the present
year and surely the cry of the poor shall not appeal to us in vain.
Thousands of our poor Saints in Europe are in a desperate situation.
Many of them will no doubt suffer for want of food. There are many
thousands of suffering children that are being cared for by the Near
East charities who also have claim upon our sympathies.

Sunday, December 2nd, is our regular fast day, when contribu-
tions for the poor are paid to the bishops of the wards. We request
the presidencies of stakes and bishoprics of wards and the Relief Society
organizations also, to take upon themselves the labor of visiting the
Saints under their jurisdiction, and of inviting everyone to attend the
fast day services on the first Sunday of December, prepared to make
generous contributions for the relief of those whose poverty and suf-
fering are appalling.

Detailed instructions will be sent from the Presiding Bishop's

office.

Heber J. Grant,
Charles W. Penrose,
Anthony W. Ivins.

First Presidency.

Notice

To Presidents of Stakes, Bishops of Wards and Relief Societies:

Information just received from our mission headquarters in
Germany states that the poverty of the Saints in that land is most
distressing. Used clothing and shoes of all kinds for men, women
and children will be a great blessing to those poor Latter-day Saints.

We desire that the Relief Societies of all the wards and stakes
in the Church shall collect and put in order and repair used clothing
and shoes, and forward same at the earliest possible date to the head-

164 IMPROVEMENT ERA

quarters of the Relief Society, 28 Bishop's Building, Salt Lake City.

Prompt action is requested. "He gives twice who gives quickly."

Heber J. Grant,
Charles W. Penrose,
Anthony W. Ivins,

First Presidency.

How to Promote the Tobacco Slogan

Frequently we obtain inquiries as to what our organizations can
do to promote our slogan, "We stand for the non-use and non-sale
of tobacco." Some days ago the Improvement Era received an
illustration of how this may well be done, particularly, since many
tobacco advertisements appear in magazines printed outside of the
state of Utah and circulate here.

That active effort is required to promote the slogan is evident
from the fact that Charles T. Prisk, superintendent of the Cigarette
Revenue Department of State Treasurer W. D. Sutton's office, re-
ported recently that the stamp sales from May 8, when the law went
into effect, up to November 8, 1923, covering six months, amounted
to $63,235.82, which was the gross revenue to the state. He calls
attention further to the fact, "that, using 10% as a basis for the tax
on cigarettes, the result is approximately $632,000 worth of cigarettes
were consumed lawfully throughout the state in the past six months."
This does not include other forms of tobacco sold. From this it
appears that Utah is consuming over $105,000 a month in cigarette
smoke, which is absolutely a dead loss. Besides, it deteriorates mental
and spiritual power, lowers physical ability, makes men and women
smaller, meaner, more selfish and arrogant, shortens life, to say nothing
of the fact that the user has to pay great financial penalties to bring
all this trouble upon himself. Then think what that vast sum of
money would do in building useful industries, in education, and in
promoting the states in developed resources.

The illustration comes to hand from Mr. J. Cecil Alter, meteor-
ologist, United States Weather Bureau, Salt Lake City. He recently
called the attention of Kuppenheimer $ Company, clothing merchants,
Chicago and New York, to an advertisement which they carried in the
Saturday Evening Post for October 20, 1923. He sincerely com-
mended and approved this advertisement and said in a letter to them:

"I have not noticed before this advertisement, such a fine picture dis-
play, in which one or more of the subjects was not smoking. The needless
aim to dignify the smoking habit has nullified hundreds of advertisements
for a goodly number of persons whom I know. There are five men in
this office, a government office, and none of them smoke. I have three
sons who wear tailor-made clothing of the Kuppenheimer variety, off the

EDITORS' TABLE 165

shelf .and on their backs; and I am grateful to say none of them has yet
learned to smoke; nor do any one of their most intimate chums.

"Just why the biggest buyers of magazine space, like clothing merchants,
should spend so much money advertising the smoking habit, another fellow't
business, I never could see nor understand. Please note that I do not object
to smoking, nor would I turn a finger to take this privilege from any one,
except my own children; but I have yet to see a smoker who is not at least
half sorry he began it. Only yesterday a very wealthy man told me that
with the box of cigars he had just purchased, his cigar bill had risen to $55
for this month, which, he regretfully admitted voluntarily, was 'too much.'
I presume he had given a great many of them to friends.

"I am carrying this advertisement of yours to my boys, with the request
to look out for the Kuppenheimer brand hereafter. You have proved that
a man can look respectable without a pipe, cigar or cigarette in his mouth
or his hand."

In answering Mr. Alter's timely and commendable communica-
tion, the Kuppenheimer clothing company under date of October 30,
wrote him, among other items, stating:

"We are gratified indeed to receive your kind letter of October 19.

* * * We have had quite a few eulogisms about the illustration you

commented on, and a similar point to the one you took reached us from

Atlantic City where a gentleman was also moved to express his approval

on a drawing featuring a group of men not smoking."

Z. C. M. I., which firm represents the Kuppenheimer house
in Salt Lake City, received a copy of the letter written by the latter to
Mr. Alter and in turn wrote Mr. Alter that they were very much in-
terested in its contents, because they are perfectly in accord with the
sentiments expressed therein. In all their clothing advertisements and
cuts, the cigarette and the cigar are eliminated, although many of the
cuts that come to them have these prominently displayed. When they
cannot obliterate the tobacco display they do not use the cuts or the
circulars at all.

There are undoubtedly many people whose favorite magazines
from the east are full of advertisements in which cigarettes and tobacco
are pictured. If these subscribers will take action similar to Mr Alter's,
both the publishers and the advertisers will likely omit, or be inclined
to do so, all cigarette and cigar displays. In this way the subscribers
will aid the cause, doing a good turn to the readers and also promote
the non-use and non-sale of tobacco among the youth of the land.
Like action could be taken in calling the attention of publishers of
novels and stories to the fact that they are only advertising the to-
bacco business, when cigar and cigarette smoking is so frequently
mentioned in the texts and otherwise, in places where such mention
has absolutely no significance except to advertise smoking and the
use of tobacco. So likewise with the movies. Both the manufacturers
of films and the local play houses have become the inveterate free
advertisers of the tobacco interests. They needlessly dignify the smok-
ing habit, "the other fellow's business." — A.

166 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Cheering Word from President David O. McKay

Elder David O. McKay, of the Council of the Twelve and Pres-
ident of the British mission, forwards these refreshing words to the
Improvement Era under date of October 26:

"Some of our deacons' quorums are now prepared to follow
a prescribed course of study. * * * Our prospects are bright-
ening. We feel happy in the work, are enjoying excellent health,
find plenty to do, and rejoice in the association of the choicest group
of young men that can be found anywhere. The only thing we lack
and greatly miss is the association of our true friends in far-off Utah.
A grasp of your hand this morning would do me a world of good."'

We heartily reciprocate this comforting message from one of the
great leaders of the youth of the Church, and assure him that the
work is growing by leaps and bounds in Zion. The Priesthood
quorums, the Relief societies, the Sunday schools, the Mutuals, the
Primaries, and the Religion classes throughout the land are growing
in numbers, interest and efficiency, with a membership of young
people^clean in thought and action, strong in innocence, purity
determination and genuine character. The leadership of these great
organizations is improving, and through more efficient service, and by
the aid of the Spirit of the Lord, the efforts of the brethren and
sisters at the head of these organizations are resulting in wonderful
progress, and in the best good to the greatest number. There are
many thousands of young people in the Church who are the most
worthy of men and women in all the earth — clear-eyed, honest, up-
right, anxious in the service of righteousness — and with whom it is
a privilege and delight to labor.

We wish our young friends and their beloved leader in England
joy, health, peace, and temporal and spiritual prosperity and welfare, in
the coming year; and are glad to note that the deacons' quorums in
that country are now prepared to study and to follow in the counsels
and admonitions of the Priesthood. — A.

On Mixing in European Affairs

One of the questions that has been before the American public
for some time is whether our country ought, or ought not, to mix
m European affairs.

Failure to analyze this question properly is the cause of a great
deal of misunderstanding concerning it.

In more than one sense of the word, the United States must mix
in the affairs of the rest of the world. We are in a world which, by
reason of modern inventions has become quite small as to distances.
It is our world, because we live in it and are affected by what tran-
spires in almost any part of it. Business is world business. It is

EDITORS' TABLE : 16?

not confined to any country or district any more. Social relations
are international. Scientific activities concern all the world. Calamities
strike all the world. We can no more dissociate ourselves from the
rest of the world in the vital activities of human existence than we
can sever a limb from the body without intefering with our normal
condition. American capital is pulsating all through the veins and
arteries of the financial and commercial, and even charitable institutions
of the human family. Stop its flow and the entire business world
becomes affected.

To some extent, therefore, even the politics of the rest of the
world is of interest to us. Other nations are our near neighbors, and
it concerns us whether they live in peace with one another, or whether
they quarrel and keep a rough house all the time. It concerns us
whether they are down with contagious disease, or enjoying good
health. It concerns us whether they keep sanitary or not. A great
many other things in their affairs are of vital importance to us, a
policy of isolation seems to us absolutely impossible now, and we have
a right to demand that they abandon any line of action that may bring
calamity and ruin to us. But we believe that is about as far as our
interest in their polity should go.

President Adams, in 1797, said:

"Although it is very true that we ought not to involve ourselves in
the political system of Europe, but to keep ourselves always distinct and
separate from it if we can * * * However we may consider ourselves,
the maritime and commercial powers of the world will consider the United
States of America as forming a weight in that balance of power in Europe
which never can be forgotten or neglected."

This statement of what our conduct ought to be as regards
European affairs cannot be improved upon. We should not enter
into any "permanent alliance" — as George Washington expresses it —
with one nation against another. At the same time we should never
forget that our country, because of its advantages, is a large factor
in the balance of power, whether with or without our consent, and this
position, this power, we should always use for the benefit, the peace
and prosperity of ourselves and all men. Only so do we fill our
divinely appointed mission in the world.

MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS
Eight Baptisms Near Palmyra, New York

President Rulon Nuttall, of the Rochester Conference, Eastern States
mission, reports: "Seven branches of the Church are organized in this con-
ference under the faithful efforts of the branch presidents and local mem-
bers. These branches have continued their work in the absence of the elders
while out on their summer campaign. The drive for new converts ended at
the Joseph Smith farm in Palmyra, New York, September 23, in the
vicinity of which memorable spot, the members of this conference have been

168

IMPROVEMENT ERA

working. Much opposition has been met in the country districts because of
old stories afloat concerning the Prophet Joseph and his work. But the
elders have succeeded, in this campaign, in breaking the prejudice to a large
extent. Recently a baptismal service was held at the Joseph Smith farm by
President Nuttall and Elder Driggs. Two members were added to the
Church. Eight baptisms have been performed during the summer campaign.
Th. spirit of unity prevails and God is blessing our efforts."

Missionaries top row, left to right: H. Wayne Driggs, Salt Lake City;
Ada McArthur, Mt. Pleasant; Houston Hatch, Panguitch, Utah. Middle
row: Loa Christensen, Brigham; Rulon Nuttall, conference president,
Provo; Alice Kuhre, Sandy. Bottom row: Max I. McClay, Ogden; Emma
H. Brown, Ogden; Jesse W. Hooper, Jr., Brigham. Below: Jesse L,
Thornley, Layton, Utah.

EDITORS' TABLE

169

Ruins of Catholic Church in Hillegersberg, Holland

Elder Leon C. Walton, Rotterdam, Holland, under date of August 20,
reports that he with other elders recently visited an old Protestant church.
"Nine hundred years ago a Dutch lady, Hillegond, built a castle and fort
upon a little hill nearby the village of Hillegersberg. Two centuries later
the family residence was reduced to ruins; and early in the fifteenth century
the Roman Catholics built a Church there, using the castle's tower for the
spire of a new structure. For one hundred fifty years this was the center of
Catholic activities in this locality. But, when, during the Reformation, the

Papal authority collapsed, the Protestants used this ancient structure as a
place of worship and have done so for the last three hundred fifty years."
The accompanying photo was taken inside the ruins of the old fort built in
the eleventh century and shows, left to right, Elder L. C. Walton, President
J. J. DeBrij, and Elder Frank J. Murdock, all of Salt Lake City. "The
large iron rings in the foreground are used to raise the concrete slabs, giving
access to burial places beneath. We tracted the nearby district and spent
many hours in disseminating the gospel light and bearing testimony to the
divinity of the great Latter-day work."

A Whiff of South Sea Air and Mission News

Recently the elders of Western Samoa met for the specific purpose of
holding some elders' meetings. The object was fully attained in the rich
inspiration that came to us in each of the meetings held, and in the associa-
tion together after a separation of several months. Among all the experi-
ences and joys of any elder, nothing holds the genuine joy and satisfaction
derived from elders' meetings. The meetings were no exception to this rule.
We say in all sincerity that it is nothing for us to go into sessions as early
as seven in the evening, and remain so until midnight, without a single
missionary noting the passing of the hours, and each with a heart melted to

170

IMPROVEMENT ERA

tears. As a result of the meetings we have already noted an awakening, and
within two weeks, twenty-one baptisms have taken place in three villages in
the neighborhood of Apia. Tithing also is coming in in increasing volume.
In other ways the work of the Lord is taking on impetus here, and prospects
are very encouraging just now. In order that the home folks might glimpse
the dozen missionaries referred to in this paragraph, we enclose a group
photograph, with the explanation that no finer, more faithful, more lovable
or purer bunch of boys can be found the world arcund. I have just received
our release, August 23, and leave for Zion soon. It has been a wonderful
period in the life of both my good wife and myself to have had the expe-
rience of this mission.

Left to right, back row: D. Ross Hale, Melvin S. Newman, Albert W.
rionham, Rulon E. Johnson, Melvin G. Wagstaff, Henry C. Jacobs, Joseph
A. Fluit, Frank N. Stephens. Front row: B. J. Nicholls, John Q. Adams,
Sister Thurza T. Adams, Richard L. Johnson. — John Q. Adams, Mission
President.

Good Results From a Visit to Utah

Elder Walter D. Francis, of Adelaide, South Australia, reports on Sep-
tember 1 , that many friends are being made who defend the truth and give
their time and means to entertain the elders. House to house visits are made,
street, as well as cottage and hall meetings are held, and much indifference
has been broken down. "The fact that we now have our own Church
building, bearing our proper name, in which we are privileged to worship,
has caused considerable comment and investigation, and has produced good
fruits. Much indifference and cold-heartedness toward us has been over-
come by the visits of a few of the titled people of this land to the valleys of
the mountains, or as they say, to the 'Mormon' stronghold. These have been
startled and amazed at finding such an ideal condition among our people.
Lady Kidman recently returned from an extended visit to the United States,

EDITORS' TABLE 171

and gave an account of her visit in a leading daily paper. She lays particular
stress upon her visit to Salt Lake City, and pays the Latter-day Saints a
glowing tribute. She says, 'The 'Mormons' do not practice polygamy, are
a good people, do not smoke, drink, or swear, pay one-tenth of their income
to the Church, and are very hospitable and progressive.' "

Elders left to right: Reuben A. Call, Bountiful; Conference President
Walter D. Francis, Morgan; El ward E. Burrows, Huntsville; Carrol L. Olsen,
Hvrum, Utah.

Forty Baptized in Frankfurt, Germany

LeRoi B. Gardner, president Frankfurter conference, Germany, reports
August 30, that eighteen missionaries are laboring in the smallest conference
in Germany — the Frankfurter, in which much success is achieved. The gos-
pel is being preached in city, village and roadside, covering a large area, in-
cluding Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Offenbach, Saar-
bruecken, and the picturesque Odenwald, the farming district lying in the
valley and on the river banks and the hillsides of the national forest reserve
where the rolliag hills are capped with a heavy growth of tall pines. Forty
people have been baptized this year and many friends have asked for baptism.
Being on the border line and partly included in the section of Germany, occu-
pied by the French soldiers, the people are inclined more toward political
affairs than religion, and it is difficult to convince the people that the gospel
of Christ is bigger and includes more than anything else in the world. Still,
hundreds are being led to consider the truths of the Bible. Many of the
people are well versed in the Bible, as they have learned it in the schools; but
since the War the Bible is no longer taught in the schools and the German
children are having no opportunity to learn the simple Bible stories and com-
mandments, so we invite children from all classes of people to attend the
Latter-day Saint Sunday schools. Thus, through the children, attending
Sunday schools and the invitations of missionaries, while tracting, many fam-
ilies have been brought to a fuller understanding of the gospel.

QyVLutual Work

A Dance Director in Every Ward

The General Boards of M. I. A. have adopted the following in relation
to stake and ward dancing parties: All dancing parties are to be conducted
by a director who has been instructed in all the M. I. A. dancing standards.

The Mutual Improvement executive officers in the various stakes and
wards will transmit this information through the Committee on Recreation
of the stakes and wards to all concerned:

THE DANCE DIRECTOR
BEFORE THE PARTY

1. Should know the type of dancing party — its particular needs.

2. Should cooperate with committee in selecting music.

3. See to the condition of the hall in regard to lighting, cleanliness, heating,

ventilation, seating, water, toilets, etc. Cooperate with janitor.

4. Should have a definite understanding and full cooperation with the group

giving the party.

5. Should make personal preparation, look right, feel right, do right.

6. Should cooperate with parents and ward leaders, and occasionally invite

them as guests. Also encourage chaperonage.

7. Should meet with other dance directors and cooperate in bettering condi-

tions.

AT THE PARTY

1. Should meet committee early and check on details and have definite under-

standing as to their cooperation.

2. Do little personal dancing.

3. See that everybody has a good time— much is to be done while the dance

is going on.

4. Maintain proper environment about the building. Cooperate when neces-

sary with peace officers.

5. Should be the constituted judge as to what is proper and improper in danc-

ing and deportment. Be constantly on the alert to prevent difficulties which
may arise.

6. Do private personal work with both crude and cultured.

AFTER THE PARTY

1. Adopt business-like method in paying for music and other help.

2. Cooperate with chaperons and bid all a hearty "Good-night."

3. Make careful review of the evening's events and make notation of con-

structive future program to be approved by committee.
Remember, You are not only directing a Dance — You are training men and women.

Monthly Message to the "M" Men

BY THOMAS A. BEAL, MEMBER OF THE GENERAL BOARD

XII. — Efficiency

Perhaps no word in the English language has in the last few years been

more overused, and yet less understood, than the word "efficiency." Few

really stop long enough to analyze its meaning — not merely in the sense "of

its derivation — but in its true interpretation-

%-> - T mutual work 173

To be efficient, and thus to have efficiency, means to be effective, to
possess skill and knowledge and proficiency in the execution of that which one
undertakes. Efficiency tells us how good men have won their battle with
fate — how they have succeeded by study, perseverance, application and am-
bition; in brief, it shows us what other men, similarly placed, have learned and
done.

Efficiency is the result of self-management. Few, if any of us have
attained it. We constantly do things which common sense tells us not to do.
We have never learned how to use ourselves, and for our ignorance we pay
dearly sometimes. It is estimated that about 73 men out of every 100 are
in the wrong job; that most men utilize only about a third of their mental
and physical forces; that we waste more than we use — more money, more
time, more strength, more thought, more opportunity. We must learn con-
servation and direction, through efficiency. The difference between a hod
carrier and the head of a great corporation is that the one works with his hod
and the other his head. To get ahead, we must get a head, that is, we must
train our brains as well as our muscles. No matter what our trade may be,
to succeed at it we must apply ourselves — both muscle and brain. But effi-
ciency is more than simply speed and economy. No worker is efficient until
his work becomes a pleasure to him; therefore efficiency means the reeduca-
tion and reconstruction of men. It sets the table for the man who is going
to be a mental, financial and spiritual leader.

"Efficiency is the power to do one's most and best, in the shortest time
and the easiest way, to the satisfaction of alt concerned." This definition is
almost all inclusive. It is not sufficient that one does his most and best, but
he must do it in the shortest time, in the easiest way, and to the satisfaction
of all concerned. Why is it that we often find two young men pursuing
the same occupation — banking for instance — who have graduated from the
same college, both from respectable families, both with an equal amount of
knowledge, and yet the one may be getting $20,000 a year and the other
$2„000? Why bave some classmates attained much more generous measures
of success than others? What was the controlling factor? Doubtless it
consists in the ability to influence the actions of others; in the ability to see
the other's point of view and get him to see his point of view. This is
efficiency — the ability to deal with people in such a way as to get their
satisfaction. To comply with this requirement is no easy task, but it is not
impossible. It may be accomplished by observing the following rules:

First, analyze yourself, i.e., discover yourself through self analysis and by study
of the family tree. Second, study your possibilities and limitations, physical, mental
and spiritual. Third, read the lives of great men who have been leaders and emulate
their example. Fourth, get a position in your chosen field, no matter how lowly,
and make the most of the job. Fifth, if handicapped by ailments, study their
causes and remove them. Sixth, if you are inclined to be pessimistic, cultivate opti-
mism, faith, tact, patience, courtesy and other mental factors in efficiency. Seventh,
arrange to get the best counsel and advice and training available and follow it. Eighth,
discover the specific moral qualities needed to produce leadership — i.e., courage, will-
power, and inspiration. Ninth, select a help-mate that will assist you to reach the
ideal and wisdom of a great man.

Hundreds of other ways might be suggested which would contribute to
make for efficiency, in the broadest sense of that term, but doubtless these
will suffice for this short paper. Carefully observe these suggestions, get the
proper spirit of your work, and then, as Lloyd George said in his recent
visit to America, using the language of golf: "Follow through, and keep
your eye on the ball."

Mutuals and Sunday Schools in Oregon

The Oregon conference the Lord has abundantly blessed. The
sincere and humble missionary workers and the Saints are doing a commend-

1 >4 IMPROVEMENT ERA

able work in furthering the gospel. With a scarcity of missionaries, due
to so many being sent to European countries, a great share of the missionary
activity is going to rest on the various organizations of the Church. We
realize the value of such organizations, and look to the Mutual organization
as one which is invaluable, due to the assistance it renders to the missionary
activity. Surely such must be the case when both activities are striving
to bring the individual to a higher point of vision and greater purposes. We
find the lessons are of a most valuable character and help in spreading the
gospel, and the reading material in the Era is of the highest order. The
missionary surely appreciates his copy of this publication, and has many calls
from the investigators for a loan of the same. We have recently organized
a Sunday School, at Bend, Ore., and Elders Amasa Reynolds and Junius Wil-
son desire another organization if sufficient will attend. That organization
will be the Mutual Improvement organization, if conditions warrant it. At
Hood River, Ore., Elders Ferron Lamb and Hyrum Oakey report that the
people can support a Mutual and we expect to see it a success. Elders Arthur
Sawyer and Milton Morrell, doing county work in the vicinity of Kelso,
Washington, report splendid success in their labors. Laboring in Portland
we have four lady missionaries, namely, Velma Nebeker and Kinnie Caine her
companion, and E. Nellie Jordan and LaVanda Peterson, her companion.
Elders Vernee G. Halliday and Grant Ellis and President Orson P. Wright and
Eugene Sloan complete the missionary personnel. For the benefit of those
who anticipate attending the Oregon University at Eugene, Oregon, or the
Oregon Agricultural College, at Covallis, Oregon, I wish to give the informa-
tion that Church services are going to be held in these localities so they won't
be deprived of their Church work. — Orson P. Wright, Pees., Box 295, Port-
land, Oregon.

Camp Stewart

Under the date of Sept. 10, 1923, Scout Executive A. A. Anderson of the
Utah County Council, B. S. A. gives the account of Camp Stewart. The daily
program and the camp rules contain suggestions of careful consideration by all who
conduct hikes, outings, and camps. Reserve them for reference:

The Timpanogos District Council training Camp closed after three weeks
sucessful operation. ,

22 Troops from Alpine, Utah, Nebo, Tintic and Wasatch stakes, under their
own leadership, each in its own individual camp, apart yet adjacent to other troops
and headquarters, under the supervision of the Timpanogos District Council, B. S. A.,
spent one week in camp arriving early Monday morning, leaving Saturday evening.
Each day activities commenced with impressive flag raising ceremonies at sun-
rise. Every waking moment of the Scouts' time was filled full of constructive
activity. They were taught the useful out-of-door scoutcraft which builds for
character, under the personal guidance of experts in Campcraft, Woodcraft, Map-
making, Cooking and Nature Study.

In the campcraft section the Scouts learned how, and made from native
material, camp coveniences and handy articles which make for comfort in the woods.

The Woodcraft and Cooking section taught Nature's compass markings, im-
provised shelters, the different types of fires, their purpose and how to build them;
how to cook ani1 serve wholesome and appetizing food with and without cooking
utensils.

In the Map making section the Scouts were taught to take field notes and
■draw maps from those notes, by actually going out into the rough uneven country
and doing so. ,

Nature Study was made intensely interesting by the unique presentation of each
individual animal, bird, tree and flower; its haunts, habits and history, by Prof.
J. H. Paul of the U. of U.

The evening colors at sunset followed by the varied evening programs, each in
a class by itself, including Troop night. Stunt night, Indian night, Game night.
Court of Honor F)ight angf Story night, put a fitting climax to each. 4ay's activities.

MUTUAL WORK

175

Three wholesome meals were served each day a la army style.

The excellent morale and discipline of the camp created through patrol com-
petition, scoring for points, kept each official and scout "on his toes" to do the
right thing at the right time.

As a camp trophy, each scout took away with him a Blue Spruce Cone
embelished with the Camp Stewart monogram.

TIMPANOGOS DISTRICT COUNCIL

DAILY PROGRAM

CAMP STEWART

Monday
Arrive in
Camp.
Register.
Assignment
to Quarters.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

First Call 6 A. M.

Assembly, Flag Raising, etc 6:20

B rea k f as t 6:50

Wash Dishes, Clean Up Camp,
Inspection 7:00" to 8:30

Instruction Period for Groups
as follows 8:30 to 12:00

A. Compass, and Map Making.

B. Fires and Cooking.

C. Woodcraft.

D. Nature Study.

5 A. M.

5:20

5:35

5:50 to

6:15

Hit the

Trail

6:20

H
I

K
E

Group No.
No.
No.
No.

A.

B.
C.
D.

No.

No.
No.
No.

B.
C.
D.
A.

No.
No.
No.
No.

C.
D.
A.
B.

T
O

Saturday
5 A. M.
Same as
first of
week.

No.

No.
No.
No.

D.

A.
B.
C.

12 Noon.

Grouping and
Patrol For-
mation.
Hike to
Stewart
Cascades.

Dinner I

M

1:30 Selective Activity. P

Exploration Hike. A

Tracking. N

Estimating O

First Aid the Game Way G
Games. O

Use of Library, Reading S
Passing of Tests.
Woodcraft.

M. Supper

M. Retreat

M. Inspection, Recording of Days Points

M. Campfire Program as follows:
Troop Fire Patrol Stunts. Indian Dance,
at Each Story. Songs. Indian Story.

Camp.

6

:00

P

6

:45

P

7

:00

P

8

:00

P.

Leave for
Home.

Buffalo
Hunt.
(Night

Games) .

Court
of

Honor

The Scout Oath and Laws will be the guiding rules of this camp.
Leaving Camp.

No scout or group of scouts may leave camp without permission of

their leader, who will get permission from camp director.
Washing.

Scouts will not wash their person or dishes in the creek, but in the tubi

provided for that purpose.
Cutting trees.

Scouts will not cut any Hying trees, either with ax or knife.
Latrines.

/ml «i" J\

Upper: Each Friday was Timpanogos Day. All climbed the mountain and slid

the glacier. This was taken on the glacier.
Center: There were eight troop camps like this at Camp Stewart apart from each

other under their scoutmaster or patrol leader. This is Camp No. 4.
Lower: The woodcraft section. One of the five sections of scout training at

Camp Stewart. ]

MUTUAL WORK 177

Latrines must be properly taken care of by each scout using them.
Information.

Scouts will get information from Headquarters through their patrol leaders.
Store Hours.

The camp store will be open from 1 P. M. to 1:30 and from 4:30 to 6:00.
RULES ON CAMP CONTEST
Discipline — 10 points for each boy who does the right thing at the right time.
Inspection — 10 points for each boy of each patrol who passes inspection as to

appearance and quarters.
Activity — 5 points of each scout who attends each constructive afternoon activity.
Advancement — 5 points for every second class test passed, except tests 1 and 9
7 points for every first class test passed, except tests 2, 1 1 and 12.
Working on merit badges to be counted under activity.
Contests — Points to be determined by the contest.

First to Report

South Sanpete stake was the first stake in the Church to submit its
efficiency report for October, 1923. Seven wards, and seven wards reported;
316 enrolled, 212 in actual attendance, and 86 points in efficiency. Charles
A. Braithwaite is the new superintendent.

Advanced Senior Class, Attention!

The following topics are suggested as suitable for consideration during
the social unit period:

"All About Radium," "The Advance of Surgery," "The Evolution of Trans-
portation," "The Struggle for Sanitation," "Eating to Live," "Cotton as King," "The
Steel Industry," "The Relative Producing Value of the Cow, the Sheep and the Hen,"
"The Battleship and the Highway as Rivals," "Our National Pleasure Resorts," "Our
Forestry System."

This list, of course, may be added to indefinitely. The handling of
these topics should be arranged for far enough in advance to make it possible
for careful concentrated preparation. In every community there are persons
who are more or less specialists and the class may have the benefit of their
knowledge by simply soliciting their help on some special subject at a specified
time and place. It will be remembered that the effect of an invitation often
depends upon the formality and courtesy with which it is extended. Our
motto: A good time, socially, intellectually, and spiritually.

Lamanite Genealogical Society Officers

On the evening of October 13, 1923, in Barratt Hall, this society cele-
brated its fourth anniversary; they elected officers for the ensuing year, under
the supervision of Elder Melvin J. Ballard, of the Council of the Twelve,
as follows: President, Horace H. Cummings; vice-presidents, Junius Rom-
ney, Elizabeth C. McCune, all of Salt Lake City; Margarito Bautista, Mex-
ican mission; Jackson Galbraith, G. Gordon White, Canadian mission. Gen-
ealogist and recorder, Mrs. Annie W. Holdaway; assistant recorder, Castulo
Martinez; assistants in typing and index work, Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Torrez
and Mrs. Rafael Torrez; secretary, Miss Mary Campbell; assistant secretary,
Mrs. Fern R. Wheeler; treasurer, Mrs. Martha Cox. This broad foundation
for work indicates the building of a wonderful future, and the "dawning of
a brighter day," for the Lamanitish races. The North Dakota, Southern
States, Arizona, and other missions embracing Lamanite territory, are to have
a vice-president each, appointed by the president of these missions, who will
cooperate with the parent association at the Utah Genealogical Library, thus
linking together in a most substantial manner this splendid effort. All lists
coming in from whatsoever source in this way can be compared with the index
of work already done, and so eliminate duplication.

178 IMPROVEMENT EkA

Y. M. M. I. A. Efficiency Report, October, 1923

STAKES

<

.si

M

S3

f

s

u

s=

5

£

En

*3

£

SB

fl

E

o

03

u

T3

&*

coO

&

0

Bear River . .

Beaver

Box Elder

Cache

Carbon

Cottonwood . .

Deseret

Emery

Hyrum

Liberty

Logan

Moapa

Mount O'gden

Nebo

North Davis
North Sevier
North Weber

Ogden

Oquirrh

Pioneer

Roosevelt

St. George . .

Salt Lake ....

Sevier

South Sanpete

Summit

Tintic

Uintah

Wayne

Bingham ....

Burley

Fremont

Idaho

Lost River . . .

Malad

Pocatello ....
Lethbridge . .
St. Joseph ....
Star Valley . .
Young

10

7

8
10
10
10
10
10

5
10
10

9
10
10

8
10

9
10
10 I
10
10
10
10

6
10
10

7
10

2

6

3
10
10
10
10
10
10 1
10 I
10 I
10 1

10

9

10

10

10

10

7

10

10

5

10

10

10

10

9

8

10

10

6

10

10

3

7

4

10

10

10

9

8

10

9

10

6

9
7

10
8
4
5
5
6
7

10
9
8
4
5
8
9
5

10
7

10
4
3
6
7
5
9
5
5
7

10

10

10

10

8

10

8

7

10

8

10

10

10

10

7

10

10

6

9

10

9

10

7

10

10

9

6

9

10

2

5

3

10

10

10

10

7

10

9

10

10

81
78
83
86
75
82
69
72
80
89
86
95
90
59
83
70
61
79
83
82
86
72
75
80
86
49
85
80
49
55
24
90
75
75
96
67
78
75
92
54

Notice to Secretaries — For October, 1922, 45 stakes reported; for the same
month in 1923, 40 reported; 319 wards, for 1922; 271, for 1923. We can do
better than that. Is your stake or ward reported? If not send your report for No-
vember, not a day later than December 10. Be dependable; and please, if you are a
vard secretary see that the stake secretary shall receive your ward report the day
following the last meeting of each month. Be prepared.

Minnie Huick, president of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association,
Marysville, Idaho, Yellowstone stake — the Y. M. M. I. A. being disorganized — can-
vassed for th Era in kehalf of the association, and sends us twenty-three subscriptions
paid up. She says they will work hard for more, though they have the 5% allotment
and have received their rebate for their treasury. Thanks, we appreciate the labors
of Sister Huick, and trust that the boys will wake up in that ward and get their
organization going.

toufuAL WORK iH

Y. M. M. I. A. Statistical Report, October, 1923

STAKES

o>j

rata

>K

g, g

n

■o .2

*<

3

y s

ceo

s

•a

<n eg

■d ti

S'S

©,j

<<

"*&

44

78

49

39

60

40

77

140

60

70

40

48

22

46

23

70

45

79

52

88

53

14

23

32

43

40

24

96

111

149

85

50

58

13

12

12

45

51

69

72

52

68

55

24

38

30

45

26

68

29

83

67

59

78

40

46

38

79

44

96

56

56

37

73

174

101

74

51

65

31

50

54

57

33

51

24

14

41

31

27

23

Bear River
Beaver ....
Box Elder

Cache

Carbon ....
Cottonwood
Deseret . . .
Emery ....
Hyrum ....
Liberty
Logan ....
Moapa ....
Mt. Ogden

Nebo

No. Davis .
No. Sevier
No. Weber
Ogden ....
Oquirrh . . .
Pioneer . . .
Roosevelt .
St. George
Salt Lake .
Sevier
So. Sanpete
Summit . . .

Tintic

Uintah

Wayne . . .
Bingham .
Burley ....
Fremont . .

Idaho

Lost River

Malad

Pocatello .
Lethbridge
St. Joseph
Star Valley
Young ....

488

289

800

520

| 360

653

418

555

| 500

1204

| 608

187

I 617

I 968

I 436

I 270

I 686

| 823

I 393

760

326

I 606

1080

I 366

469

420

| 215

I 614

190

590

399

581

213

154

359

412

235

500

353

103

12

5
13

8
10
10
11
10
10

11

11

6
6

15

8

5
17
10

5
10
11
15
12

6

7
12

4

91

6
12 I
10 1
13|
12 1

4|

8
10
10
13
11

5

5
12

8

4
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87
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87
77
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114

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129

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114
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87

123
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75

100
89
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85 |
17
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27

185
19

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233

540
380
195
508
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738 |
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114
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101 | 349
128 I 288
50 193
169 | 430
200 I 503 I
79 I 284

62

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160
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110

29
106
290
171

48
156

161
112
200
198
130
90
73

36
319
647
431
376
316
191

66 I 51
76 I 38

20
62
91
23

119
70
15
86
80
20

27 | 141
89 | 262

43
65
99

100
29

171
81
25
30

207

109
33

109
67
72
36

101

129

214
204
376
258
120
365
274

94
137
563
302

70
274
259
189
137
281
333

55 | 179

107

76

171

156

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71

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20

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87
39
209
44

113
74
10

115

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33 I 118

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43

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326
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519
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248
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84

"/ congratulate you upon the very excellent character of the November
issue of the Era. The selection of articles and contributions evidences wisdom
of choice and discrimination. The editorials and editorial comments are
choice, both in subject matter and diction. May the Lord bless you for
the great good you are doing." — Joseph A. West, Logan, Utah.

Vernal R. Steffenson, writing from Rostock, Germany, October 27:
"Please accept our appreciation for the Era which we receive regularly. We
recognize it as a potent factor in the advancement of missionary work and
a source of inspiration and help to us in the performance of our duties, and
express our gratitude for the Era. We pray the Lord to bless its publishers
and all who are aiding in its circulation among the people."

^Passing, Events

Former U. S. Senator for Minnesota, Frank B. Kellog, succeeds Mr.
Harvey as ambassador to Great Britain. He left Nov. 10 for London.

A Ku Klux Klan has been organized in Ogden, according to an announce-
ment published Oct. 28. Only American citizens can become members
and no Catholics and no Jews are admitted.

Ex-President Wilson addressed some of his friends and admirers on
Armistice day, Nov. 12, on "Armistice.". This was the second address in
less than 24 hours and the third since he left the White House.

Ambassador Harvey, in his farewell speech in London told Great Britain
that the United States is anxious to aid Europe, but that Europe has closed
the door against American help, says a Washington dispatch dated Oct. 24.

Samuel Gompers is re-elected president of the American Federation of
Labor, at the 43d annual convention of that organization at Portland, Ore.
The election was unanimous. Next convention will be held at El Paso,
Texas.

Gov. Mabey pleaded for law enforcement, in an address at the Chamber
of Commerce luncheon, Nov. 7. He urged especially the enforcement of the
Volstead law, and added that dissatisfaction with the law should be ex-
pressed at the polls and not by violation.

Albert W. Felt passed away, Oct. 1 5 , at his home in Canyon Road, Salt
Lake City. He was the son of N. H. and Eliza Ann Felt, early pioneers
of Utah, and was born Sept. 25, 1853. His wife, Ida D. Felt, preceded
him and entered behind the veil nine months ago.

The death of the president of Nicaragua, Diego Emanuel Chamorro,
occurred on Oct. 12, at Managua, according to an announcement received by
the state department. The departed president was a member of a family that
was noted for its friendly feelings to the United States.

A Turkish republic was established Oct. 29 by the national assembly at
Angora, and Mustapha Kemal Pasha was elected its first president. The
president is elected by the deputies for a term of four years, and may be re-
elected. The president seems to be clothed with greater authority than the
sultan had.

The death of Charles Proteus Steinmetz was announced from Schenectady,
N. Y., Oct. 26. He was known as an "electrical wizard," and it was said
that he knew more about electricity than any other man living. He visited
Salt Lake City Oct. 8, and spoke to an audience at the Hotel Utah. His
death was sudden and unexpected. He was a German by birth and was only
59 years old.

7 he Saxon ministry disregarded the Stresemann ultimatum and on Oct.
28 declared that the Saxon diet is the sole tribunal to determine the issue
that has been raised in the controversy between Berlin and Dresden. Strese-
mann's demand was that the "red" ministry of Saxony "get out," or the
reichswehr would get it. Ziegner, the Saxon prime minister, replied by
appealing to the diet.

The United States and France parted ways on the European situation
Nov. 9, when Secretary Hughes informed the French premier that the restric-
tions insisted upon by France regarding the scope of the proposed expert
inquiry into Germany's ability to pay reparations would "frustrate" the
object of the Washington government. If this ends the discussion on the

PASSING EVENTS 181

subject, the responsibility for the failure will rest with France, the very thing
M. Poincare was anxious to avoid.

Chancellor Stresemann was granted dictatorial powers, Oct. 13, by the
German reichstag, by a vote of 316 to 24. This marks the end, temporarily
at least, of democratic government in Germany. It is hoped that by this
means national unity may be preserved; that the country may be saved from
bolshevism; that profiteering may be suppressed; that immediate financial re-
forms may be undertaken, and the chancellor may be able to induce France to
begin negotiations on the question of reparations.

President of the Utah Educational Association for the year is now Pro-
fessor Henry Peterson, of the Agricultural College, Logan. He was elected
Oct. 26, at the annual election held at U. E. A. headquarters. He had 535
votes. Dr. N. C. Jensen, state superintendent of public instruction, had 526.
Miss Etta Powers, principal of the Wasatch School, Salt Lake City, was the
unanimous choice for vice-president. Miss Alice Reynolds and Dr. M. O.
Merrill, of the B. Y. U., Provo, were elected trustees.

Andrew Bonar Law died Oct. 30, at his home in London. He was born in
New Brunswick, Canada, Sept. 16, 1858, but in early youth he moved to Glas-
gow, Scotland, where he was educated and engaged in business successfully. In
1900 he was elected to parliament from the Blackfriar's division, and after that
be rose rapidly to prominence, being appointed secretary of state for the colonies,
chancellor of the exchequer, lord of the privy seal, and finally, premier.
His wife died in 1909, and his two sons fell in the war.

Funeral services for James A. Leffter were held in the Preston, Idaho,
Third Ward chapel, Oct. 12., with Bishop Wm. Hawkes in charge. He was
one of the early settlers of Gentile valley. Mr. Leffler was born July 27,
1840, in Boone county, Missouri. He crossed the plains in 1862, and on
January 4, 1875, married Ann Maria McGregor who, with one daughter,
Mrs. Annie Christiansen of Thatcher, Idaho, survives him. He also is sur-
vived by three grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.

Governor J. C. Walton of Oklahoma was impeached by the house of
representatives of the state, Oct. 23, and, the next day, suspended by the
senate. The governor immediately appealed to the court, and Judge Cham-
bers granted him an injunction restraining the lieutenant governor from exer-
cising any of the powers of the governor of the state. However, on Oct. 25,
the supreme court of the state sustained the senate resolution suspending the
governor during his impeachment trial, and enjoined him from interfering
with the lieutenant governor. He was removed from office by the senate,
Nov. 19.

The Rhineland republic was proclaimed Oct. 21, at Aix-la-Chapelle,
by the Separatists, led by Leo Deckers and Dr. Guthardt. The coup-d'etat
is said to have been effected without the shedding of blood. Leo Deckers
is a native of Aix-la-Chapelle; he is a prosperous cloth manufacturer, 60
years old. The Belgians and French are said to be supporting the movement.
On Oct. 23, fighting was reported at Aix-la-Chapelle, and the Loyalists were
said to have gained possession of the city, while the Separatists were said to
have occupied public buildings at Wiesbaden and to be marching against
Duesseldorf.

A cavein at the Utah Apex mine, Bingham, occurred, Oct. 16, in a stope
on the 1500-foot level. The foreman, Dan Eden, 50 years of age, was
crushed to death, and five others were reported missing. On Oct. 19, two
of the missing were rescued alive, after having been entombed for 56 hours.
They were Joseph Norden, the mine superintendent, and Jose Ratalaza, a
Mexican miner. Mr. Norden lay helpless for four hours with a leg pinned
under rocks and debris. Ratalaza hewed his way through and released him,
thus saving his life. The three whose bodies were still in the mine on the
1 ?th, were Charles Parsons, Richard Armstrong, and O. C. Nelson.

182 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Funeral services were held for Mrs. Maria Covey Ballard, the young wife
of Melvin R. Ballard, Oct. 18, in the Eleventh ward. The deceased passed
away at a local hospital on the 15 th of Oct. Magnificent floral offerings
testified to the deep affection and regard with which she was remembered.
Bishop George McAllister presided. The speakers were George Albert Smith,
Stephen L. Richards, and Melvin J. Ballard of the Council of the Twelve;
and President Anthon W. Ivins and President Heber J. Grant. Patriarch
Hyrum Smith offered the opening prayer, and President Rudger Clawson,
the benediction. Dr. James E. Talmage dedicated the grave.

A revolution broke out in Munich, Bavaria, Nov. 8, but was instantly
quelled. On the date mentioned one Adolph Hitler started the "putsch"
in a rathskeller by declaring himself the chancellor of Germany and the fam-
ous General Erich Ludendorff, military dictator. Failing to obtain the
support of the troops, the revolutionary leaders barricaded themselves in the
war ministry, where they were surrounded by soldiers. They then emerged
from the building and the revolution was ended. At the same time it was
learned that the German ex-crown prince had left Holland and returned to
Germany. The report almost caused a panic in Paris, at first, but later little
importance was attached to the matter.

Betsy M. Cook died at her home in Delta, September 19, 1923. She
was born April 27, 1860, in east Weber; daughter of Byron and Elsie Maria
Knudson Bybee. On March 15, 1877, she married Josiah H. Cook in
southern Utah where they resided for some years and then moved to Delta.
She is a mother of thirteen children, fifty-five grandchildren, and four
great-grandchildren. She was a loving mother and dutiful wife. As a
homekeeper and nurse, she was a minister of comfort to all about her. Fun-
eral services were held September 22, where President Willis E. Robinson
and others paid her useful life eulogies. The Delta Relief Society passed
resolutions of respect to her memory and several poems were read lauding
her character and labors. — Mrs. Nora Chappell, Lyman, Utah.

The Church school teachers met Oct. 25 in Barratt Hall. President
Heber J. Grant addressed them on the text, "That which we persist in doing
becomes easy to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed, but that
our power to do has increased." With numerous concrete examples he il-
lustrated this message. The object of the Church schools, he explained, is to
make Latter-day Saints. He added, if it were not for that, the Church could
spend three-quarters of a million a year in other ways. Inspiration and
testimony, in the speaker's opinion, are more important than cold facts. "We
have the truth — the gospel — the plan of life and salvation," he said. "If we
work with ability and strength, God will increase our power. Anything
can be accomplished with perseverance. By constant endeavor we become
expert. Things become easy to do because our power to do them increases."

B. Y. U. Leadership Week Scheduled. — Leadership week at the Brig-
ham Young University is scheduled this winter for January 21 to 25, in-
clusive, according to announcement made by the B. Y. U. Extension division
under which department the event is conducted. The purpose of this week is
to assist in training leaders for the Church and community, by offering regular
classes in various departments. Last year 2500 people took advantage of this
opportunity provided by the Church school. The following departments will
hold daily sessions for one hour, arranged in such a schedule that one may
attend a different class each hour: Priesthood (Aaronic and Melchizedek) ;
Relief Society; Sunday School; M. I. A.; Primary; Religion Class; Teacher-
Training; Dramatic Art; Music; Social Training; Play and Play Supervision;
Pageantry; Genealogy; Health Work; Scout Leaders; Home-Making; Farm
Problems.

C. Clarence Neslen was re-elected mayor of Salt Lake City, Nov. 6, and
T. T. Burton and Herman H. Green were retained as commissioners. The

PASSING EVENTS 183

vote cast was the heaviest in the history of Salt Lake City for a municipal
election. The total ballots for mayor was 34,433, of which the successful
candidate got 19,733. Joseph E. Galigher, the defeated aspirant, had 14,700.
Parley L. Williams, who ran for the position of commissioner, was the
lowest on the list and yet he came close to Galigher, lacking only 614 votes
of the strength of the defeated leader. One noticeable feature of the contest
was that Galigher lost in his own district, No. 79, while Neslen carried his
own neighborhood, polling 418 votes to Galigher's 239. The issue raised
by the following of Parley Williams and Galigher was the old cry of "church
and state." It served to draw the voters to the polls, to express their protest
against that effort at reviving a dead issue.

The L. D. S. Hospital at Idaho Falls, Idaho, was dedicated Oct. 22.
President Heber J. Grant offering the dedicatory prayer. In the tabernacle,
four-minute addresses were made by Presidents John H. .Hart, of Rigby stake,
James Duckworth of Blackfoot, Albert Charles of Teton, David Miller
of Yellowstone, Joseph H. Dye of Shelley, and Mark Austin of Fremont
stake. Elder Melvin J .Ballard, of the Council of the Twelve, gave a stirring
address. President Grant read the following telegram from Gov. C. C.
Moore:

"It is with the deepest regrets that I tell you that I cannot be with you on the
occasion of the dedication of your hospital. Please present my congratulations to the
board of the new hospital for the completion of your magnificent institution. Surely
it is a work of mercy that shall receive its reward. I can add nothing to the
dedication of such an institution, for the heroic sacrifices of nurses, physicians and
loved ones will dedicate it more than the feeble words of man. I trust that you meet
with a great measure of success and I know that your work will be humanitarian in
the relief of suffering, the binding up of wounds of the people and the soothing of the
sorrows of all mankind. May God bless you in this work."

The hospital which was opened to the public Nov. 16, is a five-story
concrete edifice, situated at the intersection of F street and Memorial Drive.
There are about 125 rooms in the main building. The total cost is
$450,000.

Mrs. Martha Ann Harris died at Provo, Oct. 19, 82 years old. She was
a daughter of the martyred patriarch, Hyrum Smith, the beloved brother of
the Prophet Joseph, and the sister of the late Joseph F. Smith.

Mrs. Harris was born in Nauvoo. She resided with her parents on Water street,
near the Mansion house, Nauvoo, until the tragic death of her father and Joseph
Smith at the old Carthage jail on June 27, 1844. Mrs. Harris was but three years
of age at the time of her father's death. Leaving the fated city of Nauvoo in the
summer of 1846, a few days before the battle of Nauvoo, with a flatboat of pro-
visions and the ox-team and big white horse of her husband, the mother, Mrs.
Smith, moved to Montrose. In the spring of 1848, Mrs. Smith, with her children
commenced the long journey across the plains, arriving in Salt Lake City on Septem-
ber 22, three months after the commencement of the trip. The family subsequently
settled at East Mill Creek, six miles south of Salt Lake City. At the age of 1 6
Martha Ann Smith was married to William Jasper Harris in the Endowment House
by President Heber C. Kimball, April 21, 1857. Two days after marriage her
husband started on a mission to Great Britain, pulling a handcart across the plains.
In the year 186 7 her husband was called to Provo as one of President Brigham
Young's bodyguards and since that time Mrs. Harris had made her home in that city.
Her life in Provo was exemplary. Her husband was accidentally killed by a team
of horses on April 2, 1910, and the shock of his death was a severe blow to Mrs.
Harris. She is survived by eight children, William J. Harris of Eureka, Hyrum Smith
Harris of Springville, Franklin H. Harris of Provo, John F. Harris of Payson, Mrs.
Mary E. Corbett, Mrs. Zina C. Dennis, Mrs. Martha A. Startup, and Mrs. Sarah L
Passey, all of Provo. Besides those named Mrs. Harris is survived by seventv-nin*
grandchildren and sixty-four great-grandchildren.

"/ like the new dress in which the Era comes out. The clear, sharp
type is very attractive and the entire arrangement is most pleasing. The Era
continues to get better and better." — Dr. F. S. Harris, President Bcigham
Young University, Provo, Utah.

"We receive the Era every month and anticipate it with keen interest,
as it is a source of satisfaction to us and aids us very much in our labors." —
Obra Pearce, Aberdeen, Scotland.

IMPROVEMENT ERA, NOVEMBER, 1923

Two Dollars per Annum

Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second class matter

Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1 103, Act of
October 3, 1917, authorized on July 2, 1918

Address Room 406 Church Office Building, Salt Lake City, Utah

Hebcr J. Grant, ) Editors Melvin J. Ballard, Business Mgr.

Edward H. Anderson, > Moroni Snow, Assistant.

CONTENTS

The Mountains Frontispiece

To Mountains. A Poem Lowry Nelson 94

Transformation, Alice Morrill 93

History, Progress and Counsel Prest. Heber J. Grant 95

You'll Find What You Look For A Poem Ethel R. Lilly white 105

Some Workings of Law. A Story William M. Daines 106

M. I. A. Slogan. A Poem Ida R. Alldredge 114

The Ways of Providence. A Story J. Arthur Home 115

Rest Awhile. A Poem A. C. A. Dean Hewer 125

Thrilling Experience of Four "Mormon" Mission-
aries. Illustrated -'..Ernest B. Woodward 126

Across the Years. A Poem C. N. Lund 133

The Mother of the Gold Star. A Story Mrs. Elizabeth C. Porter 134

Do You Believe? :; ... Joseph S. Peery 138

Room for Him at the Inn. A Story Lucile Talmage Carlisle 139

We Stand for the Non-Use and Non-Sale of To-
bacco '_ .. Will H. Brown 145

Book of Mormon Characters . J. M. Sjodahl 146

Who Would A-Conquering Go. A Poem Mabel Jarvis 148

The Old Clock. A Poem Joseph Longking Townsend^.A49

Holger Danske's "Briller" or "Specs" Hugo D. E. Peterson 151

Life. A Poem—: Enoch Jorgensen 152

Helps in Teacher-Training . L. John Nuttall 153

Home. A Poem . Weston Nordgran 155

The Great Drama of Life . A. Ray Olpin 156

Life's Visions and Purposes — X-XII Dr. George H. Brimhall 157

Church Music Committee Edward P. Kimball 161

Editors' Table — Thanksgiving Calls for Help 163

How to Promote the Tobacco Slogan 164

Cheering Words from Pres. David O.

McKay . : 1 6 6

On Mixing in European Affairs 166

Messages from the Missions 167

Mutual Work 172

Passing Events „ 1 8 Q

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Winter Quarter Attractions: Basketball, Debating, Dramatics, Leadership Week,

Dancing, Winter Hikes.

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